(March 13, 2013 at 9:34 am)DeistPaladin Wrote: Predictably and on-cue, the Christian apologist responds with the old retort of who-are-you-to-judge-(my)-god with a dash of who-can-really-be-sure-of-anything-anyway Solipsism.
That’s an interesting preface, considering that plenty of atheists believe that morality is subjective.
Quote:Why is rape or slavery or genocide or child-abuse wrong? Because they violate the rights of another as defined by The Social Contract. We do not wish to be raped. We do not wish to be enslaved. We don't want our families killed. We would not wish to be subject to being stoned in the public square for disobedience as children. So we don't allow it for others, not just for my own sake and protection (for what is allowed to happen to another could happen to me) but also to avoid hypocrisy, for how can you prescribe for another what you would not tolerate yourself? The Social Contract is reinforced by our own sense of empathy. We are community animals who depend on one another for survival and so we naturally feel and relate to the pain of others.
The fact that there are such things as rape show that the social contract is not universally recognized as correct morality.
Quote:Morality is a measure of how we treat our fellow sentient beings, acting with empathy and integrity as we would wish to be treated by others. Secularists have the clearest understanding of this point, which is why our focus is the rights and well-being of others.
First, do you mean sentient or sapient? Second, why is that the cutoff, and why isn’t that cutoff subjective?
Quote:Reading the Bible cover-to-cover allows the reader to notice that most references to "evil" or "abomination" are over such victimless activities that are injurious only to the religion and not to any fellow beings or else these references are to violations of arbitrary taboos such as working on the Sabbath, eating pork or loving someone with similar body parts.
That’s not really relevantm, but it’s interesting. What are the counts?
