The forum seems to have slowed down in the last couple of days, so I thought I would see if I can liven things up by introducing a red meat topic.
So, are there any moral absolutes? My answer is an emphatic no, I think all the morals are relative; it is up to everybody to formulate their own morals.
The reason for saying that is simple; one only has to look at definition of ‘absolute’. Absolute is something that is true, at any time, at any place, no restrictions, no exceptions. There certainly are absolutes in the physical universe.
I can think of one. Go outdoors anywhere on earth, pick up a stone, drop it from the height of say, one meter. The stone will drop to the ground. Now this is true anywhere on earth, at any time (today or a million years ago), regardless of the weather conditions, who is doing the dropping etc.
So there are absolutes in the physical universe. But moral universe is a different thing. I cannot think of any moral tenets which are absolute. Lying, cheating, murder, robbery, consider any kind of vile action. I can imagine hypothetical circumstances where such a vile act is justified, where reasonable people will say that it is justified.
It is the religious conservatives who insist that there are moral absolutes (what they mean is that their morals are absolute and that the rest of the world should follow their morals). But I haven’t come across even one moral tenet that can be considered to be absolutely true.
So what do you think, are there moral absolutes? If so, what are they?
So, are there any moral absolutes? My answer is an emphatic no, I think all the morals are relative; it is up to everybody to formulate their own morals.
The reason for saying that is simple; one only has to look at definition of ‘absolute’. Absolute is something that is true, at any time, at any place, no restrictions, no exceptions. There certainly are absolutes in the physical universe.
I can think of one. Go outdoors anywhere on earth, pick up a stone, drop it from the height of say, one meter. The stone will drop to the ground. Now this is true anywhere on earth, at any time (today or a million years ago), regardless of the weather conditions, who is doing the dropping etc.
So there are absolutes in the physical universe. But moral universe is a different thing. I cannot think of any moral tenets which are absolute. Lying, cheating, murder, robbery, consider any kind of vile action. I can imagine hypothetical circumstances where such a vile act is justified, where reasonable people will say that it is justified.
It is the religious conservatives who insist that there are moral absolutes (what they mean is that their morals are absolute and that the rest of the world should follow their morals). But I haven’t come across even one moral tenet that can be considered to be absolutely true.
So what do you think, are there moral absolutes? If so, what are they?