(November 21, 2017 at 10:47 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: Except that I don't. I approach ethics through REASON which, as I admitted in the OP, has failed to produce an unproblematic theory. Through reasoning, one can try to discern what is right and wrong. Hedonism, for example, forbids rape because it causes a great deal of pain and suffering. Through reason, I have come to accept that rape is wrong in much the same way a cosmologist ascertains that the universe is (probably) around 14 billion years old. New evidence or thinking could present itself which causes either the cosmologist or the philosopher to rethink their positions.
Not so with religious thinking. Religion holds fast to its stubborn precepts and so cannot modify its "theory" in order to reassess its ethics.
1. If you don't know that such things are immoral, why do you criticize religion for its positions? You could change to agree with religion at some point, right?
2. Your contention that "Religion holds fast to its stubborn precepts" is demonstrably wrong. Some religions have changed on certain issues. Do you seriously not recognize that?
