The Golden Rule ? Sense or Bullshit?

[Red Celt]

Well last I checked we were the first to land a man on the moon and the ones providing most of the intellectual manpower for space-born vehicles, we were going to build the first [and would have also been the largest even by modern standards] superconducting super collider [which did not happen only due to budgetary concerns], we have had the most active space program to date, most technological innovations on a large scale have emerged from the US, and our universities are the best in the world, so you can take that little unwarranted ad hominem and shove it right up your butt-pucker.

This is all rather tangential to the rest of the conversation, but just a few quick points about what you wrote here. You are on very dodgy ground claiming the moon landing(s) as an American accomplishment. Worldwide, it was seen as a human accomplishment. If you're going to add a nationality to it, the American flag should have been accompanied by a swastika. It was German ingenuity that gave the US space program its foundations... born from their efforts to demoralise the UK by means of unmanned munitions delivery.

The best translation of everything you wrote was that the USA had the money to see those things accomplished. That was due to resources and manpower. If the New World had been the size of Belgium, with the land and population to match... none of that would have been achieved. And it is down to money. If you're ever in one of those creators of technological ingenuity, have a listen to the number of accents that you'll hear. The brains aren't all American. The money is, though.

You've been drinking the Patriotism Koolaid like every other good citizen.

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This is so painful. I was going to write an explanation, but Google saved me the effort. Thanks for the laugh when you suggested that I was the one who needed educating. I'm an honours student, doing a masters in philosophy. I'm more than a little bit aware of what objective morality is and is not.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Objective_morality

An interesting example, given that the truth in math is determined by coherence with a certain set of axiomatic principles. So yes, given the proper set of axiomatic principles, the statement "Murder is wrong" can be as objectively true as "1+1=2".

Also, if you are mastering in philosophy, I'd suggest staying off the rationalwiki, which has a definite bias towards skepticism.

You saying "murder is wrong" is subjective, not objective. The concept of objective morality is that it exists in separation from the subjective experience. It would be universal (literally) and held to be true in every civilisation on every planet in the universe. As it doesn't rely on those civilisations, it would have predated them. It would exist even if there were no civilisations. Going back to my original question (that you mocked) it would have to have come into existence at some point after the big bang.

Except it didn't, because it doesn't exist. "Good" and "bad" are evolved concepts and utterly subjective.