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Do right and wrong exist?
I'm curious about objective right and wrong. If you believe in God, this is a no-brainer. Some things are wrong, some things are right, simply because God says so and He knows. But if you don't believe in God, can you still believe in objective morality? I personally don't think you can. I mean, what do you base it off of? How do you find out what's objectively right or wrong? (By objective I mean "existing independent of thought or an observer as part of reality." from dictionary.com)
Sure, there's subjective morality. Any idea of right or wrong come up with by a human is by definition subjective. That's all well and good. Problem is that it only applies to people who believe in it and it gives them no authority to proclaim anything as "what we should be doing." Very often everybody disagrees with each other and we don't get anywhere. (Just look at Congress for an example of this.)
Maybe you disagree with me and you think there is objective morality but no God. That's fine. I would like to ask you to answer a question for me though. Let's pick an easy one. Why is rape objectively wrong? Don't misunderstand me, I can't think of a single instance where rape wouldn't be wrong. I believe very strongly that sexual abuse is one of the greatest evils in the world. Why is it evil? If you can answer me without using a God-based or subjective argument, I'll concede the point.
That point is this: Without God, there is no such thing as right and wrong, only the things we call right and wrong. And since nobody can agree on what to call what, we're all in a lot of trouble.
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Deepak Shukla 500+
When you've expressed your own perspective on rape by saying " I believe very strongly that sexual abuse is one of the greatest evils in the world. ", you have already answered your question. Then you ask "Why is it evil ? ". I'd love to hear about your reasons in believing so if you really think that "nothing is right or wrong objectively". Its because there is a reason for you to believe in such a way. No good reason can then justify a rape or any kind of sexual abuse, even though it may be the right thing for the ones who commit such acts.
I don't believe in God completely as I'm an agnostic. But what I believe is, even without God, there is something called your own "consciousness" that will always be an "observer" for whatever you do. So, as far as I think, its humanly impossible to be completely objective while making a judgement on what is right or wrong. Your heart and mind will always give you reasons to believe in whatever you may want to. However, there would always be things that are fundamentally wrong even without any reference to God.
So to answer your objective question, to me, even without God, there are many things that are inherently wrong with what they represent rather than their after effects.
Scot Wilcox 10+
Mark Meijer 100+
So god told you rape is evil, eh? And what if he had told you rape is good?
Mark Meijer 100+
Or how many people decided after due deliberation to NOT rape someone just because god said it's evil. I would guess not so many.
Even so... to think that some people may have only decided against raping someone because god said no. Apparently that's what passes for morality with god-fearing people: Not what YOU would do or not do, but what you are TOLD to do or not do.
Deepak Shukla 500+
To point out again: , "there are many things that are inherently wrong with what they represent"