(July 4, 2010 at 1:22 pm)chasm Wrote: The answer is no, and that is that. Morality is what is socially acceptable. The Bible says slaves should be beaten, but that's a bad thing, right?
So morality is what's socially acceptable, and nothing more? That surely confounds the idea of moral progress. Maybe you don't believe in moral progress, but denying any objectivity seems to leave us in a difficult position. In a society where half of people believe that euthanasia is right and half believe it's wrong, who is right? How do we decide what to do? You may be right that morality is nothing more than what society disapproves of, or approves of, but moral decision-making seems necessary to some extent.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
