Addendum: Atheism and morality (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 01:50 (5311 days ago) @ xeno6696

We can set laws; but where do the laws come from? They come from a general sense of what's right and wrong. Most people do "the right thing." (Whatever that happens to be at that period of time.) We make laws to provide a justification for punishing those who do not. My evidence is the simple fact that we live in groups. We couldn't live in groups if we were each acting as the last man on earth. I use the term "last man on earth" because the only time that morals/ethics of any kind have any meaning whatsoever is in the context of living with at least one other person. 
> -I forgot to address where our "moral sense" comes from. -As (somewhat) of a counter to dhw; children do seem to have an innate sense for "justice," though justice as interpreted by a small child is always "what is important to it. In this dhw and I fully agree. I do not believe there is a true "moral sense" as in an instinct; I think the society we have won today was a slow evolution from the raw ancient lust to tyranny, to one where the individual is respected above all. An irony here that makes me wish we had a full-Christian on the forum: "How can a God that demands submission to it be compatible with a society that focuses on the betterment of the individual?"-But it is this childish sense of fairness, that starts with the self, coupled with the slowly growing circle of that justice beyond the spirit of "me" that has evolved our political, ethical, and moral systems to the point they have reached today. -Or, put another way, as I have slowly learned what is fair for me and through empathy, extended that knowledge beyond myself to other people I have thus improved the landscape for other people around myself. We can call it the golden mean instead of the "Golden Rule." -Speaking as an only child, the only reason I'm not blindly the slave to my own selfish whims is because in 7th grade, my best friend flat-out told me I was being a mooch. My desire for friendship superseded my desire to have everything for myself and I have thus been extremely cautious ever since. -The "moral" () of the story is that our moral sense is developed by (and only by) our contact with other people. And the culture we live in is what determines what is "right" or "wrong," even though no objective "right" or "wrong" exists.-If my writing style seems suddenly different, it's because I've been reading Nietzsche again... and I tend to ape his style because I love it so--

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"