The Portland Territory wrote:Here's a question that I've debated with many others before, but will bring here.
What is the point of morals if there is no higher power to enforce them?
I feel exceptionally sorry for anyone who does not understand that morality, that is, not being a dick to your fellow human being, is fundamentally a good thing, or what the point is of it, intrinsically.
I say this because, if you are an atheist, agnostic, whatever, if you have any at all, your morals are subjective.
They most certainly are not. There's no arguing that whether genocide is helpful or harmful to our fellow being is a mere matter of opinion.
Morals are not objective because there has never been anything eternal and powerful to support certain ideals.
What is more eternal or powerful than good for good's own sake?
If morals are subjective and are so susceptible to change, then why have any at all?
They are neither.
For example, in 2004, Barack Obama said that he does not support same-sex marriage. Ten years later, with his support, same-sex marriage becomes legal in the United States.
Barrack Obama was wrong, and now he is right. It has always been the case that same-sex marriage provides benefit to people and to society.
Why should beliefs that are so fundamental in your life, change?
If you had asked me ten years ago, I would not have believed many of the other fact statements that I believe today - I would not have believed that certain technological capabilities would ever be invented, I would not have believed that certain things that have come to pass were going to come to pass, and I would not have believed certain statements of science which we now know to be true. To refuse to change one's beliefs on such topics is a blight which sadly afflicts many people, but I try to do my utmost to avoid it. So it is with morality.
Morals, in the secular sense, are meant to make you a good person. If you keep changing them, because they are subjective, then what keeps somebody from forming their own dangerous beliefs which are "moral" to them?
Moral truth is no more "Changed" than scientific truth. It was not
decided that light should both be a wave and a particle: it was discovered by experiment. Similarly, we can discover moral truth via a modicum of thought.