Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: August 5, 2025, 9:07 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Developing systems of morality, outside of religious influence.
#6
RE: Developing systems of morality, outside of religious influence.
I lean pretty close to Sam Harris' idea of morality being concerned with human well-being - actions and policies that promote well-being are good, and those that hinder it are bad. Well-being is hard to describe, but we can still make (pretty much) objective judgments when comparing two different things. Physical health is also very hard to define, but there is an objective difference between eating an apple and drinking battery acid when it comes to its effect on your physical health. Moral systems are subjective - that's just a fact of the world - we see innumerable moral systems across time, cultures, and individuals. But that doesn't mean each system is equally valid or helpful or good. The problem is there's nothing to point to as the "true" good, because we have no way of assessing morality outside of human perception. And if someone from another moral system simply doesn't value the same things as you, just claiming 'you're wrong, I'm right, look at my book' isn't going to change their mind.

If a moral system doesn't place human well-being at its center (for example, if it claims the most important thing to do in life is follow God's rules), then I really don't think it has any use. It might get some things right, but its foundation is misplaced, in my opinion.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: Developing systems of morality, outside of religious influence. - by FatAndFaithless - March 8, 2018 at 11:00 am

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Morality Kingpin 101 12564 May 31, 2023 at 6:48 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  A Case for Inherent Morality JohnJubinsky 66 11213 June 22, 2021 at 10:35 am
Last Post: John 6IX Breezy
  Morality without God Superjock 102 15070 June 17, 2021 at 6:10 pm
Last Post: Ranjr
  Morality Agnostico 337 58446 January 30, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  Does religion expose the shortcomings of empathy based moral systems henryp 19 3831 December 2, 2017 at 7:54 pm
Last Post: henryp
  Objective morality as a proper basic belief Little Henry 609 204132 July 29, 2017 at 1:02 am
Last Post: Astonished
Video The Married Atheist vid: Morality from science? robvalue 5 2438 March 19, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Last Post: brewer
  Does religion corrupt morality? Whateverist 95 33197 September 7, 2015 at 2:54 am
Last Post: Wyrd of Gawd
  Morality is like a religion Detective L Ryuzaki 29 9572 August 30, 2015 at 11:45 am
Last Post: strawdawg
  thoughts on morality Kingpin 16 7454 July 29, 2015 at 11:49 am
Last Post: Pyrrho



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)