How do decide tell right and wrong?

reply to post by babloyi


not trying to be rude the secular side, but it seems to me that you have no explanation as to why there is morality in the world.

Not really, meth. We have pretty good explanations where morality and ethics comes from.

The ability to act with empathy, sympathy, and as socially adaptive agents is ingrained in brains, not all mind (e.g., sociopaths etc). Many of the rules are defined by the social dynamic. We are social creatures, and social groups work most effectively with social rules. Many of them are pretty much arbitrary, and flexible. Thus, eating dogs is bad in most western countries, but has been viewed as acceptable in some oriental. In contrast, in the west we love to eat cows, hindus don't. Or the way we can justify killing in certain circumstances. Thus, you might view the genocidal actions of a bible character as acceptable, but the exact same actions by a chinese emperor not.

If you are interested in scientific explanations of human morality, try reading 'the moral animal'. Should give a decent foundation in understanding such issues. I also posted a video by the neurophilosopher, Patricia Churchland, t'other day. It's up on google video if you have a spare hour and a degree of inquisitiveness.

ok you pretty much gave me the answer I expected you to give and that is "majority opinion".
so basically, we make the rules as we see fit, whatever feels best, whatever is most convenient, whatever is most acceptable, etc...

that actually explains a lot of our problems in the world.

women getting abortions left and right because they dont want to take responsibility for their actions.... yes, including rapes and incest.... you kill the rapist not the baby, you punish the one forcing the act of incest.
teens having sex is not a learning experience, we teach them to use protection instead of teaching that its unlawful until married. if people saved sex for marriage, we wouldnt have as many STDs, we wouldnt have high pregnancy rates, we wouldnt have as many single-unmarried parents.
if kids believe that we descended from an ape-like ancestor, your gonna get kids trying to do illegal drugs, have sex before marriage and a bunch of law breaking because of the philosophy this theory implies. thats only a few issues.

teach the kids that they are just an aninimal and share a common heritage with earthworms and its going make a wreck of society.

christians in the past have tried to hide behind God for their brutal acts, but there is nothing to hide behind when it comes to those who dont believe in anything beyond the natural universe.

Originally posted by Methuselah
ok you pretty much gave me the answer I expected you to give and that is "majority opinion".
so basically, we make the rules as we see fit, whatever feels best, whatever is most convenient, whatever is most acceptable, etc...

that actually explains a lot of our problems in the world.

i don't think you properly examined mel's post, methman.

women getting abortions left and right because they dont want to take responsibility for their actions.... yes, including rapes and incest.... you kill the rapist not the baby, you punish the one forcing the act of incest.

and then you punish the woman by forcing her to endure 9 months of a constant reminder that the rape occurred as well as the troubles of pregnancy and the social stigma she'll have to put up with.

teens having sex is not a learning experience, we teach them to use protection instead of teaching that its unlawful until married.

we actually don't teach them to use protection. very few non-abstinence programs exist in the USA. in countries where they do teach birth control and responsible sex they actually have lower rates of teenage pregnancies and STDs

and sex isn't unlawful until marriage. it's completely legal so long as both partners are consenting adults of legal age.

if people saved sex for marriage, we wouldnt have as many STDs, we wouldnt have high pregnancy rates, we wouldnt have as many single-unmarried parents.

and if made people save sex for marriage, you'd be forcing your religious beliefs on them
if we taught them how to properly use birthcontrol we wouldn't have as many STDs, unwanted pregnancies, or teenage parents.

if kids believe that we descended from an ape-like ancestor, your gonna get kids trying to do illegal drugs, have sex before marriage and a bunch of law breaking because of the philosophy this theory implies. thats only a few issues.

...not really. you're saying that evolution = nihilism...but nobody has ever really proven that link.

in fact, show me evidence that atheists are less moral than theists.

teach the kids that they are just an aninimal and share a common heritage with earthworms and its going make a wreck of society.

...ok, whether or not evolution is true, humans are animals. family animalia.

and could you actually demonstrate how it would make a wreck of society?

christians in the past have tried to hide behind God for their brutal acts, but there is nothing to hide behind when it comes to those who dont believe in anything beyond the natural universe.

we don't hide behind anything and we have no need to because we're no more or less moral than christians.

i don't think you properly examined mel's post, methman.

no im sure I read and understood it, thank you very much teacher, will this be on the test?

and then you punish the woman by forcing her to endure 9 months of a constant reminder that the rape occurred as well as the troubles of pregnancy and the social stigma she'll have to put up with.

im sure the reminder will be there regardless. troubles of pregnancy? have you ever been pregnant? oh and would you also like to put her at risk to become infertile? or causing cancer by restult of the opertion?

so what if we wanted to kill it anytime after she had it? would that be murder? and notice that its easy for anyone to say that its ok to abort an child... because they have already been born. tell me this, if you were the product of rape, how would you feel that your mom let you live? tell you what I would feel good. but here is something else to think about, if God wants you in this world, he will get you in this world by some other means... other parents, and heck it might even be the same situation, one parent aborted you, so God just planted you somewhere else where someone was again thinking about aborting you. you never know.

we actually don't teach them to use protection. very few non-abstinence programs exist in the USA. in countries where they do teach birth control and responsible sex they actually have lower rates of teenage pregnancies and STDs
and sex isn't unlawful until marriage. it's completely legal so long as both partners are consenting adults of legal age.

we dont? maybe thats a problem also?
ok you can either teach them several ways to hopefully prevent pregnancy and STDs, or you can just teach them not to do it at all until marriage... hm... which one sounds better? which one sounds more logical? and which one sounds more worth it?
and I know its legal by our laws, but that doesnt make it right.

and if made people save sex for marriage, you'd be forcing your religious beliefs on them
if we taught them how to properly use birthcontrol we wouldn't have as many STDs, unwanted pregnancies, or teenage parents.

its not a religious belief, thats a scientific facts and a psychological fact that waiting for marriage has a very positive outcome, and logically, if everyone were to wait for marriage we would have and STD count of close to 0%. think about it.
birth control doesnt counteract or prevent STDs at all. and again if we taught the kids to wait intead of try not to get pregnant, unwanted pregnancies STDS and #of teenage parents would drop.

...not really. you're saying that evolution = nihilism...but nobody has ever really proven that link.
in fact, show me evidence that atheists are less moral than theists.

you definition of moral is probably way different than mine, this argument would go straight through the floor and you know that.

...ok, whether or not evolution is true, humans are animals. family animalia.
and could you actually demonstrate how it would make a wreck of society?

indeed, and I think biology class improperly classified humans. humans should be in their own category. you get people believing in this dumb theory and you are gonna get kids turning into people who do drugs, have sex while still in jr high school, have them out at night on the streets doing/dealing drugs, possibly with guns(illegally),
plenty of examples out there that show that you are what you believe (95% of the time) if you believe you are an animal, you will act like a animal, perhaps in a more sophisticated way, but still we dont act like we should due to what we are taught.