Theistic morality

[Purple Rabbit]

This is a contradiction. If historically there never was a shared common moral code than there can be none in retrospection. To posit one in hindsight would be a revisionistic action trying to rewrite history. You cannot just posit that moral positions on gender equality and slavery are absolute throughout time.

What I am distinguishing between is what people did believe and what people ought to have believed. So in no way am I trying to rewrite history. We can claim that people believed different things at different times, but that doesn't mean that what they believed at any given time was necessarily morally right, just because they believed it.

So as I understand you correctly the "That doesn't mean that there isn't a rationally based moral code which would have been true in the past, regardless of what people believed" refers to your perception of a moral code that you think should apply at all times and in all places. But, dear friend, that is your subjective opinion. It is an OUGHT, a prescription, not a FACT. As such it has no more value than any other opinion on the matter. Also I think it is silly to, as you propose, judge historical events on this basis. You can say that according to your moral standards now you dissaprove of certain historic facts in the past, but as a prescription for the past it has no meaning and it will not change a thing about those historic facts.

Have I ever said that other cultures regard these things as morally wrong? Clearly some don't. That doesn't mean that they're right.

I can agree with that and, based on what I have seen you writing here, we actually might share pretty much of the moral values. But the formulation of opinion won't make it fact. The only thing that might help is sharing it in the broadest possible way, the result will be something like the Declaration On Human Rights and that is available online.