Atheism and morality (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 02, 2010, 14:47 (5112 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: I have just been unbelievably busy this past two weeks. Four birthdays, two out of town trips, and 9 people staying in a two bedroom apt for five days, and an upcoming anniversary.-I must say I find your autobiography rather more exciting than your views on morality! With that sort of lifestyle, maintaining balance must be a really tricky operation!-Your post at last makes it perfectly clear where all the misunderstandings have arisen. We needn't discuss the various examples (though thank you for taking the trouble to list them), because it all boils down to one simple blind spot ... though whether that is yours or mine, I can't say. As far as you're concerned, the UI has an exclusive monopoly on objective right and wrong, and the rest of us mess around with our fluid, suspect concepts of morality. As far as I'm concerned, morality means concepts of right and wrong, and I don't see any necessity for your distinction between right and wrong on the one hand and morality on the other. We agree that human morality is not objective, and is variable from culture to culture, group to group, and situation to situation. Why, then, can't we say that only a UI would be able to come up with an objective right/wrong, whereas human concepts of right and wrong are fluid and suspect? In the words of our famous compare-the-meerkat.com: "Simples!"