Societal morality is essentially a behavioral contract. It is mostly proscriptive - the idea being that if certain behaviors are prevented, it will create a better society.
At some point people realize that there is a "better" set of rules that results in the type of society people want to live in. These may be objectively better (if objectivity exists in this realm), or they may simply be more coherent to the current zeitgeist.
I think there can be a morality that leads to a objectively better society, if one can agree that psychological and physical harm is bad, and happiness and personal fulfillment are good. But, that morality is still dependent on the state of society, and can rarely be judged until after the good/harm of it has born out.
For a true-believer, the purpose of life is to get to heaven, and the rules for getting to heaven are set in stone. Therefore, anything that runs afoul of the rules is evil and must be stopped. Of course, believers disagree on these rules, but they think that they must exist somewhere in God's rule-book. Judging morality based on how they affect human happiness or well-being is antithetical to their world view. Only God's opinion matters (and their God seems to have the same prejudices that they do - funny that).
At some point people realize that there is a "better" set of rules that results in the type of society people want to live in. These may be objectively better (if objectivity exists in this realm), or they may simply be more coherent to the current zeitgeist.
I think there can be a morality that leads to a objectively better society, if one can agree that psychological and physical harm is bad, and happiness and personal fulfillment are good. But, that morality is still dependent on the state of society, and can rarely be judged until after the good/harm of it has born out.
For a true-believer, the purpose of life is to get to heaven, and the rules for getting to heaven are set in stone. Therefore, anything that runs afoul of the rules is evil and must be stopped. Of course, believers disagree on these rules, but they think that they must exist somewhere in God's rule-book. Judging morality based on how they affect human happiness or well-being is antithetical to their world view. Only God's opinion matters (and their God seems to have the same prejudices that they do - funny that).
