Ready to wrap this up? (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, June 12, 2008, 10:07 (6009 days ago) @ Cary Cook

Cary writes: "If you don't acknowledge a personal Supreme Being, you can't say your moral code has an objective foundation." - I never said it did. - Cary: "If you do acknowledge a personal Supreme Being, you can say your moral code has an objective foundation, but you can't prove it or even know it." - Or even be sure that your subjective interpretation of it is objectively correct. - Cary: "Humanism, human dignity, social functioning, and love are all side tracks that do nothing to clarify this issue." - We seem to be talking about different issues. Mark wants to know how agnostics/atheists live, and I have put the humanist case. That is not a side track, it is a direct answer. He asked whether "moral truth is objective in the sense that it has reality outside of human minds. Is it real?" I pointed out that something can be real even though it is a product of the human mind, and I suggested a parallel between moral codes and the rules that govern football. I even pointed out that the earth's rotation round the sun was "as objective a truth as humans can hope for". Objectivity and reality are not the same thing (see your own concept clarifier under "real" 4: "often used sloppily to mean absolute or objective"). - Cary: "I don't claim to know my moral code is objective. I just assume one exists, and try to conform to what I think it is." - I know my moral code is not objective. It is based on humanism, human dignity, social functioning and love, and I try to conform to what I think it is.