Your Moral Compass

Originally posted by checkbaiter
I understand your contempt for slavery, killing people because of sexual preference, etc., and I assume you refer to the Old Testament where some of these practices occurred under the command of God Himself. However you miss the definition of a greater love than you can fathom. Many of the slaves by the way were (Dulos) and chose to stay with their mast ...[text shortened]... king from a sensual or physical perspective. God is love and in Him is no darkness(evil) at all.

You show by your answer what I am seeking to show - that this so-called "Word of God" (not the only religion that claims that) must be interpreted and studied and decided upon. There are many Christians who would have a different approach to the Christian scriptures than yours, which is fundamentalist in nature. The bad decisions and fundamentalist interpretations of religious writings nearly always lead to acts against humanity instead of for it, as they are usually based on a legalistic punitive guilt-ridden view of life. This leads to very immoral actions. Your choice of interpretations, isn't it?.

Originally posted by divegeester
"WWJD"

What kind of lame juvenile hipster-speak is this?

"WWJD" just means "What Would Jesus Do?" It is Jesus talk, not hipster talk. 😏

Originally posted by Taoman
You show by your answer what I am seeking to show - that this so-called "Word of God" (not the only religion that claims that) must be interpreted and studied and decided upon. There are many Christians who would have a different approach to the Christian scriptures than yours, which is fundamentalist in nature. The bad decisions and fundamentalist interpreta ...[text shortened]... view of life. This leads to very immoral actions. Your choice of interpretations, isn't it?.

Well, things have changed today, we have same sex marriage, abortion, sex before marriage, etc. The world condones these behaviors as normal. It is still sin at it's core. The only thing that has changed is that people are no longer commanded to execute such people because we now live in an age of grace.
But that sin is still self destructive and it does have ill effect on the community as a whole.
Surely, you can see the effect on our communities in the last 40,50 years. There has been a steady increase in immorality, none that it was not there before, but more widely accepted.

Originally posted by checkbaiter
Well, things have changed today, we have same sex marriage, abortion, sex before marriage, etc. The world condones these behaviors as normal. It is still sin at it's core. The only thing that has changed is that people are no longer commanded to execute such people because we now live in an age of grace.
But that sin is still self destructive and it d ...[text shortened]... n a steady increase in immorality, none that it was not there before, but more widely accepted.

Morality is of course completely subjective.

For those that believe allowing same sex marriage is moral,
and believe allowing women a choice is moral, and believe
that allowing natural human behaviour prior to some archaic
ceremony is moral ...

For those people the world is a much more moral place than
it was 50 years ago.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Morality is of course completely subjective.

For those that believe allowing same sex marriage is moral,
and believe allowing women a choice is moral, and believe
that allowing natural human behaviour prior to some archaic
ceremony is moral ...

For those people the world is a much more moral place than
it was 50 years ago.

Morality is of course completely subjective.

How so?

Originally posted by kd2acz
What do you claim to be your moral compass...?

At its core, and in the simplest terms; do not harm others, do not deceive others and do not coerce others.

Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
[b]Morality is of course completely subjective.

How so?[/b]

Checkbaiter has different morals to me.

Originally posted by FMF
At its core, and in the simplest terms; do not harm others, do not deceive others and do not coerce others.

I like it.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Checkbaiter has different morals to me.

So, in your mind, there is no such thing as "good" or "bad" beyond what a given individual deems it to be? Rape is neither "good" nor "bad"? Slavery is neither "good" nor "bad"? Beating children is neither "good" nor "bad"?

Originally posted by ThinkOfOne
So, in your mind, there is no such thing as "good" or "bad" beyond what a given individual deems it to be? Rape is neither "good" nor "bad"? Slavery is neither "good" nor "bad"? Beating children is neither "good" nor "bad"?

I believe rape is bad.
I believe slavery is bad.
I believe beating children is bad.

I obviously cannot say that everyone would agree with me.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
I believe rape is bad.
I believe slavery is bad.
I believe beating children is bad.

I obviously cannot say that everyone would agree with me.

You didn't really answer the questions. The questions weren't whether or not everyone would agree with you.

They were framed within the following context:
"So, in your mind, there is no such thing as 'good' or 'bad' beyond what a given individual deems it to be?"

Seems like it would be helpful if you answered the above question.

Originally posted by kd2acz
For many, one's moral compass is their faith. For others a moral compass is values that are passed down from parents, grandparents, etc. (which may be faith based or not). Still others, a moral compass is more culturally based, or what is based on the given law were one lives. What do you claim to be your moral compass, is it any of the above or something else?

You have used the term moral 'compass', which I take to mean something which helps guide you as to what is moral and what is not.

In which case, then I would not regard any of the things you have listed as a moral compass for me.

In the case of faith, because I do not have any at present.

In terms of values passed down to me by my parents, of course, these have no doubt influenced what I think is moral and what is not in the past, but I would not judge anything today as a grown adult by reference to what my parents think is or is not moral.

Cultural values - similar. It is probably easier to be take certain moral standpoints if they are broadly accepted by the culture in which you live, but they do not guide me as to what is or is not morally acceptable.

Law - most certainly not. Some of the greatest advances in moral inprovement have resulted in changes to the law that previously deemed certain acts not only immoral, but illegal.

I would argue that my moral 'compass' is simply my intellect and I challenge any act by reference to the same type of considerations as FMF alluded to.

So, for any given action/inaction:

1 Does it cause any harm to anyone other than myself? If not, then I do not regard it as immoral.

2 If it does cause harm to anyone other than myself, do the benefits (other than purely selfish ones) clearly outweigh the harm being caused?

There is a lot you could add to this in terms of refinements needed for specific circumstances, of course, and many of the judgements that need to be made are subjective, but 'do the least harm to others as possible' would be the basic gist of it.

Originally posted by kd2acz
I like it.

It involves no superstition or supernatural ingredients.

Originally posted by kd2acz
For many, one's moral compass is their faith. For others a moral compass is values that are passed down from parents, grandparents, etc. (which may be faith based or not). Still others, a moral compass is more culturally based, or what is based on the given law were one lives. What do you claim to be your moral compass, is it any of the above or something else?

Morality, by definition, is a code of conduct or behavior, and is subjective on a purely human level.

Unless one adheres to an objective code of morality as defined by the Creator. Then, all bets are off.

Originally posted by Taoman
You show by your answer what I am seeking to show - that this so-called "Word of God" (not the only religion that claims that) must be interpreted and studied and decided upon. There are many Christians who would have a different approach to the Christian scriptures than yours, which is fundamentalist in nature. The bad decisions and fundamentalist interpreta ...[text shortened]... view of life. This leads to very immoral actions. Your choice of interpretations, isn't it?.

Christianity takes two forms.

One is legalistic. Legalism leads to conflict.

The other is Grace based and leads to liberty.