(July 28, 2023 at 9:15 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(July 28, 2023 at 9:04 pm)Varium Wrote: I mean to be fair, The Bible has several moments where both slavery and infanticide are approved of by God. Sure, Christians in the past have abolished slavery, same with Jews in the Old Testament, but was it because of what God said? Or because of basic human morality?
https://www.evilbible.com/evil-bible-hom...-pro-life/
https://www.evilbible.com/evil-bible-home-page/slavery/
Interesting question!
I'm curious about the term "basic human morality." Is there such a thing? How do we know what it is?
The fact that people have so frequently behaved badly seems to argue against such a thing. Or maybe the fact that we can so easily act against it means that it has little influence.
I've seen people claim that all morality is based on empathy, but I'm skeptical about this. It seems to me that morality varies quite a bit with the age, and may have very little about it which is "basic" to the unchangeable human operating system.
So for example you and I take slavery and infanticide to be bad, but in vast regions of time and space they were normal.
When I use the term "basic human morality" I'm referring to viewing other people as equal, and seeing they should have the same rights as everyone else. Such as in most cases of slavery, the "masters" have seen their slaves as inferior (mentally and/or physically) to them, so therefore they should not have the same rights, this can also be used in some cases of infanticide.
I get that for years, outdated science has told people that others are inferior to them, so that slavery is justified. However, even then people were stating how they were all equal
(ex; The Constitution stating everyone is equal, while slavery was legal.)
And for infanticide, this is built-in human morality. Our brain tells us to care for our newborns, and to protect them.
