(July 29, 2013 at 4:54 pm)Slave Wrote: Because we are talking about humans. I care about the affairs of humans and human rights, as I consider myself a humanitarian.
We also keep 'harping on' about species classification after having been repeatedly told that an embryo (and all other development stages of human life) are not human.
teaearlgreyhot Wrote:The golden rule is my assumption. Assuming the golden rule, then abortion isn't murder. Many atheists here assume golden rule so I thought it would provide an interesting perspective to those of us who hold it. I don't believe in objective morality. I only hold to the golden rule because every violation of it I can imagine disgusts me.
I must know however, why do you personally object to murdering an adult human? I.e. by what criteria do you conclude that murder is wrong?
Fair enough for the first paragraph.
As for your question, I guess I would say murder is wrong if not done in self-defense and even then it should be as a last resort only. I disagree with the death penalty, as I see it is hypocritical to kill murderers for killing i.e. 'an eye for an eye' is bullshit.
Firstly, I think we need to clear up our terms. My understanding is that the word "kill" means to take the life of another and "murder" is specifically denotes the wrongful killing of another. "Kill" isn't necessarily an action that is right or wrong. Murder however is by definition wrong. To say "murder is wrong if.." makes as little sense as saying "wrongful killing is wrong if..." as if one could say "wrongful killing is right if..." which is a contradiction.
What's at issue here what acts of killing are specifically acts of murder (wrongful killing) and why they are murder.
Do you apply your criteria of what is murder to all living things or just humans? Am I to understand this is your thinking?
All acts of murder are ones that involve a human killing another human "not out of self defense or not as a last resort"
Killing a kitten is not an act that involves a human killing another human "not out of self defense or not as a last resort".
Therefore, killing a kitten is not murder.
My ignore list
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
