Atheism and morality (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 14:54 (5126 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: I have said many times that I think humans have the capacity to know the difference between right and wrong, but not the capacity to do the right thing. The idea that a societal consensus can define something 'right or wrong' is utter rubbish. What society can do is make something legal or illegal, which has little if anything to do with right/wrong or moral/immoral. There does exist a 'right/wrong', but it does not lie in a book, or society, or in a legal system. It lies in the 'heart' of a person.
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> DHW:I'm surprised that you dismiss this argument as "utter rubbish". Do you believe a baby is born with an innate sense of right and wrong? -
Ironically, the average(non-insane) person knows innately that murder, rape, etc is wrong. To me, those do not fall under the heading of right/wrong by social consensus. To illustrate that, consider a normal, mentally healthy child that kills his/her first animal. Society makes these particular 'wrongs' illegal, which is, as you pointed out, not the same at all as right or wrong.-For a better illustration of societal right and wrong, consider instead the various taboos on sex, or the prohibitions/sanctions against drugs and alcohol, or our attitude toward warfare. I like these three examples because they do a good job illustrating the shades of grey that humanity normally manages to goon up as well as being things that are not implicitly good or bad, right or wrong. -Warfare, though I do not agree with it in the form it takes in our society(i.e. fighting over economic/political power) can be a force for good when suppressing the actions of a hostile aggressor that is trying to destroy your society. Yet, if you absolutely have no other choice than to go to war, you go with all of your strength and determination and leave no enemy to threaten your society again, while doing your best to spare the innocents should there be any. -You mentioned about women being engaged in sexual relationships as soon as they finished puberty as an example. I do not personally see anything wrong with it, PROVIDED that the young woman has had the proper upbringing and knows full well what she is getting into. My great grandmother married at 13 and was married to her husband until he died some 50+ years later. In our current society, I do not think children are raise with the same sense of responsibility and hard work ethic that she was, so at the moment, I do not think that it would be healthy for a modern american girl to be engaging in sexual relations at that young age. However I think it is something that is more to the individual than society.