Religiosity, Spirituality and the Moral

[Lek]

Do you think there's a rational justification for killing newborn daughters, Lek? Or for laws commanding that you only have one child? If not, then clearly this isn't a justifiable secular moral ideal, is it?

In my mind there isn't sufficient justification, but there probably is in their minds. Parents are concerned about keeping their wealth in the family and having someone to care for them in old age. Culturally, daughters belong to their husband's family. And I figure they justified the one child law as being for the good of the many by keeping the population down.

Like religious laws, secular moral laws can be either good, or bad. They aren't all one category because you can find one bad example. The difference is that secular morality allows for us to investigate and rationally examine morality and come to better conclusions over time, based in reason and empathy. By contrast, religious morality never allows for this, as it has staked its ideas in a purportedly ultimate authority that cannot be changed; it is exactly as good or as bad today as it was when it was written. There's nothing vital or capable of changing according to circumstances in it.

As far as secular morality goes, it's pretty much up to society to determine what is morally right, as in my China example. If the majority of a society determine that it's okay to kill your newborn child, it can pass for good morality.

Please, don't then claim that christian morality is just good, now. Don't insult us both by doing that.

Christian morality is just good. Please don't give me some gory example of something from the old testament and tell me they were following christian morality. Tell me what Jesus has taught me to be morally good and bad.