Is Right and Wrong subjective or absolute?

Question

Feel free to either give me your take on things or insult me. 10 points may well go to best insult.

Ethically/ Morally speaking

(of couse, I mean ARE right & wrong)

Answer 1

ALWAYS subjective.
It is based on cultural biases and even within one culture these things change over time.
Think. It is wrong to kill another human being. Right?
The government regularly kills human beings. Right?
It is wrong to coerce people out of money you have not earned. It is the same as stealing.
The IRS regularly coerces people out of money they have not earned. (Legislating thievery doesn't count and is unethical and morally wrong). The founders tried everything to prevent this country to ever have a 'general tax'.
Might makes right! With enough power, you can do anything to anybody and they have no recourse.

Think Saddam before 2003 and after! Look around this world and tell me what's right and wrong.
If you win, you are right. If you lose, you are wrong and will be punishes by those that can. Right? Wrong? Don't make me laugh! ;-)

Answer 2

I am older than dirt. In my life I have found that God gave us the ten Commandments to live our life by, these are not Gods requests they are Gods laws. Right is absolute for me. Right is subjective for many. Just about any Wrong can be rationalized into right but that does not change that it was wrong.
In America we have 44 million Americans with no basic Health Insurance, half that number are women and children, that is wrong.
We spend $500 billion on defense and we have a National debt of $9 trillion. The Iraq war will cost tax payers $2 trillion over 10 years. We are the richest most powerful force on the earth and we can't even take care of our own in America first. That is also wrong.

Answer 3

I guess it depends on who you are and what your belief system is. Why would I want to insult you? If you live in the world you can be convinced that right and wrong if subjective. If you live as a christian you have to strive for right and wrong to be absolute. (not that we ever get there entirely)

However there is sometimes a thing called a necessary evil. It doesn't mean that it is right it only means that it has to be done. It's a double edge sword.

Answer 4

Absolute.

The issue is although right and wrong are absolute culture / religeon / plain old ignorance remove from the common man the simple logic of right and wrong.

Each man has 3 area's of rights. The first is the right to be part of a social group. Any one / thing that prevents a man from being part of a social group could be considered wrong. (right of family, right of being a citizen, etc)

The second right is the right to property, be it land or just to own something physical or idealic. ( computer , life, inventions, etc)

The third right is the right to free thought.

Anything that increases a mans rights is Good so long as it takes none away from another man.

Anything that infringes upon the rights / takes away a part them is wrong.

Apply this to anything and you will find that it is easy to find right and wrong.

Are there gray areas to this yes. Because we as humanity allow them to exsist. A war is evil it robs from men (humans...) of all sides. But there are times when due to religon /culture / ignorance wars must be fought to overcome an evil that has control of a people.

But in this wonderful system of absolute only 1 thing matters - not the state / country / not boundries on a map, not families, but an individual.

We have lost our Right as humans to think for ourselves, to be able to judge our neighbors honestly and we have sold our souls and our minds whole sale to the ideal that our own cultures / religeons/ ignorance is the only way to be and all else must be evil.

Answer 5

Almost completely sure any non subjective analysis of Right will show they're absolutely wrong. Now that morbid humor is over Go with Aristotle virtue is the mean between two extremes.

Answer 6

It is subjective, what Americans believe to be ethically right, is often regarded as wrong in other parts of the world, and vice versa, right and wrong all depends on how you were brought up as a child, what your mentors taught you. Most ideas we have religious, ethics, even politics often come from our mentor figures in our life, so to me, right and wrong is absolutely subjective!

Answer 7

Right or Wrong determines many factors in many different situations that would defer Absolute or subjective in a matter os speaking like a burgeon and very credulous in an absolute way!

Answer 8

Whew, boy. Ethical relativism. Great.
Either right and wrong is subjective or absolute, as long as either side can face the philosophical objections to support that their view is adequate.

Answer 9

You sound like a typical commie-liberal who has no sense of reality. Are you some kind of tree hugging homo or something? How many years were you in the 2nd grade anyway? (The preceding insults are for points purposes only, and are not to be taken as the view of the answerer, his family or his heirs)

Answer 10

Some things are, in general, universal (don't kill people for no reason). However, how they are interpreted is highly subjective. For example, many people feel that a person worshipping differently from the way they do is a sufficient reason to hurt or kill that person. Some feel that killing a murderer is perfectly just, others do not.