RE: Atheists; what do you base your morals on?
March 8, 2013 at 10:07 am
(This post was last modified: March 8, 2013 at 10:09 am by Creed of Heresy.)
(March 8, 2013 at 9:52 am)mo66 Wrote: Well, that depends on what you call "astray" surely. An Atheist mass murderer like Stalin clearly didn't consider his actions "astray", that's the beauty of subjective morality. You can set your own limits.
Sure, but it wasn't exactly like he was alone, either. He was in power because people in his country wanted him to be in power. A majority of people, in fact. Leaders are nothing without their people. Those he killed? Minorities. Minorities who threatened him, yes, but ultimately impotent in the face of the numbers who were loyal to him. Subjective morality is, strangely, made objective by sheer numbers of like-minded individuals sharing those ideas. Ultimately you can measure what is good and what is bad by how it benefits others in balance to yourself. Closest you can get to objective morality is simply how many people agree with your ideas. Not just here and now but in the long run as well. ESPECIALLY in the long run. The long run is far more important than what is agreed upon in the here and now. There's a reason why those whose moral ideals were millenia ahead of their time are looked upon so favorably, and why those who were ignorant, hateful, and/or murderous and/or rapacious are looked upon as vile monsters to be detested and held up as an example to NOT follow.
And that reason is those who think about the future, and not the present, are those who ultimately pave the way for the betterment of humanity. And for that, we love them.
(March 8, 2013 at 9:52 am)mo66 Wrote: What's wrong with throwing rocks at adulterers? A bit rich coming from a person who claims that there is no objective morality. You have no objective evidence that stoning adulterers is an immoral punishment.
Oh naivete.
"Sir, you must understand, in my culture, we stone adulterers to death!"
"I understand, but sir, you must understand, in MY culture, we put people who stone others to death for adultery on trial, and then we lock them in prison for the rest of their lives."