MACS wrote:I never questioned your morals. I never said mine were special. I, in fact, stated you could be an atheist and still be moral.
I asked how one calibrated one's moral compass if they did not believe in God. Morals based on WHAT?
I guess your answer was morals based on what you were taught by mom/dad/societal norms. People change. What's good/evil does not. It is MY contention that morality, right and wrong / good and evil, do not change. You disagree, and that's fine by me... but if you could provide an instance where good/evil changed I'd find it helpful to understand your side.
People have changed their perceptions. As you stated, slavery was once accepted (by some) and now it isn't. Are you saying that when it was accepted it was right? Of course not... so society's moral compass changed.
I think you missed my point. I didn't mean special in a better way. Just special in the way that you would consider the original 10 commandments given to moses on tablets special, compared to this morning's newspaper. I understand you believe atheists could be moral. But I also know you MACS. You do consider the instructions given to you through your religion more important than many things... that carries over, it's natural that it would.
Let me try to find another way of stating it. Everyone thinks their morals are special. They have to, otherwise they would change them. I think my morals are special because they are what I believe is right or wrong. Delta (I'm assuming) believes his morals are special because they are what he believes are right or wrong. These two may differ. You however have some subset of your morals (may be 1%, may be 100%) which you believe are special not necessarily because you believe they are right or wrong, but because you are told they are right or wrong. These are externally motivated morals. They become easily visible when someone confesses sins. Or says they are sinners. That implies you did something which you believe is bad because it violates the morals you were told were right/wrong. But it doesn't seem to be bad enough that you're not going to do it. That entire concept has always confused me, as if something is morally wrong, you don't do it. The entire concept of people sinning regularly, and asking forgiveness regularly means that the externally applied morals and their own personal morals are at odds.
As for good/evil... I don't buy that there is a universal good/evil. I believe that there are some things which are right/wring which 92.8% of society can agree on when presented on a case by case basis.... but I think you're edging towards anthropomorphizing it....
