Moral Nihilism

[Kyuuketsuki]

I don't think you are right ... do you have any evidence to support the claim?

From wikipedia is there a good explannation on conscience on a bio-psychological view:

And? It says nothing about not killing being "in our backbone" which is my only point of disagreement with you.

agree I find the idea abhorrent but I do not agree it is inbuilt ... I concede there may be (probably is) a pack instinct to protect our own children I do not necessarily believe it extends to all children without societal factors. The Nazi's killed Jewish children as easily as they killed the old and frail ... that rather implies that humans feel nothing specifically for children of another "pack" or "tribe" without societal influence. Cannibalism has been a component of several cultures and has been noted to occur many times in adverse situations.

In cultrues were cannbalism have strong connection with religion. Not because it's something that we find tasty.

Firstly so what? And secondly who are you to decide what people do and don't find tasty?

We have an instinct that tells us to not go the neighbour and eat him when we feel hungry, if we don't have anything in the fridge.

As previously stated, I don't agree and I think you'll be hard pressed to find anything more than opinion to back that up.

Seeing a children suffer is something causes everyone to get emtional effected. Since we have emphaty do we feel sorry for people and specially children, since it as you ay built in to protect children. Since we are diffrent from most animals can our brain feel sorry for other outside our "tribe". It's an effect of our advance emphatical feelings. Which have heped humans, since our instinct tells us to defend the weak no matter what that humans come from.

You do. I do. You and I no doubt know of many others who do but that by no means supports your assertion because we are of similar cultures, modern, western cultures and that assertion, whilst seemingly reasonable to you, may not transcend the barriers of time and civilisation.

The Nazis idea is an affect of an psycholigcal term called masshysteria and brainwash. Those who killed children where hating them becuase they where let to belive that they where evil.

Again so what? It may be true, it may not be true but it doesn't support your assertion that we have an inbuilt need to avoid killing children.

I don't agree, I believe pretty much all our morality is learned. Individual do not possess morality, morality is a societal concept ... individuals (as you note) possess a conscience which allows them to evaluate their own and others behaviour against accepted societal morals. There have been cultures where it is acceptable to brutalise many, to enslave others, to kill young and so on and all without apparent remorse ... that goes against what you are claiming.

Some moral is a social concept. However many are what I call built in. We have barriers that stop us from doing things. Those soceities where bruatlise, enslage and kill young have often have strong connection with religion who have justified this.

You can call it what you like Giff but your wish and/or belief that it is so does not make it so. Humans are animals with brains, we are capable of great beauty, great achievements, great love and so on but by the same token we are also capable of great "evil", appalling acts of inhumanity and brutality which (to me) clearly indicate that we are nothing special in whatever great scheme of things there might be. Maybe religion is involved, maybe it isn't but as Dawkins said "Good people do good things, bad people do bad things but it takes religion to make good people do bad things" ... I would later that from religion to ideology and I would further add that religions/ideologies CAN make bad people do good things. But then again who decides what is good and what is bad?

We find it morally wrong to kill our own parents, since it something that our brain tells us pretty much. We cry when someone we love dies, we wouldn't kill someone we like for an instant. We have emotions that control what we can do and not. Psychopaths don't have that and are pretty much evil and lack a sence of moral.

Some don't and in some cases I would support them.

A guy here died when he was run over by train. The reason was becasue someone where on the railroad track and he threw himself and pushed that person away. He was self killed. I think it was girl he saved that got paralyzed when seeing the train and couldn't move out of the way. The reason he did it wasn't because the society says it's good at helping eachother, it was in impulse he got to help someone which he did. However he was run over by train and died.

Which is all very well but it DOES NOT prove we have any inbuilt moral concepts, it simply demonstrates that we will act in some very self-sacrificing ways ... why has yet to be established.

That's a helluva assertion ... justify it.

If we hadn't had emotions a conscience, would we have no problem killing another humans and don't feel a thing about it. We wouldn't care if our relatives died or someone we would love and we would have no problem killing our own children. We would be like mantis without our emtions, our brain and conscience.

And again it DOES NOT prove that morals are built in and not learned.

I don't think there is necessarily an instinctive component to morality ... I'm not discounting it as a possibility but I would want to see more evidence before I accept it.

Understand that. I will try to do that. But just as a short and easy example: Dolphins for an example have saved people from drowning, which have been reported. They haven't done this because they have a moral created by there society that telled them to do that. It was an instinct for them to help someone they saw were in danger.

Sigh! Marvellous! Peachy! Very nice! Moving and whatever else but none of that proves that we have any kind of built in moral conscience.

Kyu