What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Catholic_Lady]

Because like I have explained, I believe they have been defined by God. I don't believe they just are whatever we say they are.

Defined by god = subjective

What now?
How do you know you're right?

Well like I told Robvalue. Even though you don't believe in God, you have to try to look at it through my lenses if you want to undertand my views. I believe God created morality. So morality is whatever He made them as.

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2. Hm? No. The state of mind is completely relevant to culpability, just as the sentence above says. Remember, culpability and moral responsibility are the same things. Just different ways of addressing it.

Then you do accept that morality is relative. You may not wish to admit it, but that is what your words above say.

No. A person's culpability is relative. The objective act itself is not. I know you see them as the same thing, but I see them as 2 different things, so you have to keep that in mind.

What did you think of my example with the insane person who killed 10 people at the mall? The act of killing 10 people is an objectively immoral act. But the insane person's culpability is probably completely eliminated. His culpability being lessened does not change the fact that going into a mall and killing 10 people is still immoral.

^Does that help better explain my views?

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I believe the death penalty is immoral as well, so I would be a hypocrite if I said this was moral. Unless she acted to save her child's life (which doesn't sound like it) I do not think it was a moral act.

But I do think that the woman's culpability is very much lessened if not completely eliminated due to the shock she was in. I would never condemn her or say she is a bad person.

And as you can see, even in our judicial system... murder remains a crime, but a person's verdict is subjective. 

You do not have to agree with my versions of morality. Likewise, I do not agree with yours either. We can have different morals and moral standards, and that is fine. I still respect your views, and I still think you are a good person despite our differences.

Considering the damage that sexual abuse does to a young child, the mother might have saved her son's life further down the road. This sounds like self defense to me.

Hmmm... can you explain how? If this man was put in jail for the rest of his life at that point instead of killed, he would still not be able to offend again. Unless you mean the child would be able to recover better if the man was dead verses behind bars? Is this what you mean?

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Oh, so murder ISN'T always wrong. Glad we agree.

Self defense is not murder. ;-)