RE: If morality is subjective...
January 26, 2015 at 6:46 pm
(This post was last modified: January 26, 2015 at 6:46 pm by Dystopia.)
(January 26, 2015 at 6:33 pm)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: When theists argue for God's literal, objective existence, they appeal to logical axioms that are considered necessarily true due to their structure. A similar process of reasoning is utilized when formulating ethical statements to be considered true or false. An ethical maxim such as the Golden Rule or its reverse ("thou shalt not do unto others...") is derived from an axiom such as "X is bad" where "bad" is defined, perhaps with more difficulty, by physical interactions that inflict pain or displeasure, though these are also blanket terms; we often realize there may be certain forms of pain or situations of displeasure where their presence is tolerated or even considered "good" in relation to the ends they serve. There may be no objective definition of "bad" but there are objective facts about reality that contribute to pain and displeasure in a sense that careful reasoning can disintegrate into notions of "bad" or "evil" found agreeable by most individuals within and across different cultures.[bold mine]
Does this mean there is some objective or "not so subjective" morality in every human society? And isn't the emphasised measuring of "pain", "bad" and "evil" a subjective opinion as well? - We could argue all day on what can be considered evil or not, and I'm sure AF members would disagree on the validity of some conducts as immoral or not.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you