Objective Morality?

[Statler Waldorf]

I have a strong desire to ensure my children do not encounter harm. As such I do not wish other individuals to castigate them as being evil. This is because this could lead to a culture that could meet out excessive 'discipline' and dehumanization of my children, and ultimately harm. I consider this relationship objectively true and thus I would promote a society by praise, condemnation etc which militated against such thinking, and I would consider it objectively wrong that others would think that children (in general) could be evil.

How do you avoid committing the is/ought fallacy here? You can’t reason from the way things are (you not wishing harm to come to your children) to the way things ought to be (no one ought to commit harm to any child)?

Secondly, why would a child automatically be innocent?

Thirdly, how do you define “evil”?

You're overplaying your hand here. Hume also argued you could derive ought from is in 2 classes: 1) sentiment 2) Some combination of (1) Is pleasing to self (2) Is useful to self (3) Is pleasing to others (4) Is useful to others. All these IS conditions Hume though could move to an OUGHT. I see no problem with DPs analysis here, except the focus on the social contract. Whilst we should prefer that to Theism and their synthetic cartoon morality, the social contract looks to be losing ground. However it can claim that morality is objective.

Just because David Hume said something is the case does not make it the case, he also said that atheists cannot use inductive reasoning, do you also agree with this position? Atheists are not allowed to invoke the is/ought fallacy when reasoning anymore than anyone else is.

Not sure I even understand your question here I'm afraid, even less what you are driving at. Can you restate what you are asking?

Maybe I missed your position, explain what rationality is first and I will see if the point I was driving at still applies.

Come now. We live in a self contained block universe, the only possible way one can account for the 'mysteries' that theism loves to pose around, morality, logic and induction. According to your own faith god not only has intervened in the universe historically, he does so every day to help his adherents and prevent nature taking it's course. He is the chief cartoonist, who can erase that anvil that wily-e-coyote has set in a trap for you and is about to fall on your head.

How does a block universe explain induction?

God always is involved in His creation, that is why we see an underlying uniformity to nature and can use induction, because we are told by Him that the governing of creation we see today will resemble the governing of creation in the future.

Who said objective moral truth was based on a law? Desirism holds that morality is the social practice of praise, condemnation, reward and punishment to re-enforce desires we wish to see fulfilled and minimize actions that would thwart them. Those desires are brain states (part of the natural world) and they pertain to relationships about objective facts about reality.

So you are saying that if someone desires to commit adultery then it is morally right to do so? If someone desires to kill someone else then it is morally right to do so? If someone desires to own slaves then it is morally right to do so?

Yeah seriously, as unbelievable as it is to you that I could be so dense. You sound disappointed that I did not agree that you could justify versus condoning rape. Infact I am so backward I struggled with all your rationalizations. The words in the bible are there for all to see, I guess it's for each individual to reach their own conclusion.

Haha, oh so the words in the Bible are there for all to see? Please point out in the ESV where the word “rape” appears in any of those verses you were talking about. Thanks.

I am not going to explain moral autonomy again.

Again?

Make a strong positive claim, support it with credible evidence, avoid fallacious arguments,

Check and check, still waiting for you to account for the things you assume to be true….still waiting…..