Right and wrong?

Question

Why do so few people understand that 'right' and 'wrong' are completely subjective concepts, and that nothing is inherently either. A simple example would be the eating of dogs. In most countries, eating dogs is considered 'wrong', but in others, it is considered 'right'.

Therefore, the act of eating dogs itself is both right and wrong. If more people recognised that this is true of opinions in general, including religious convictions, the world would be a far safer place.

What do you think?

In answer to you RB - you're missing the point. Murder is only 'right' or 'wrong' depending on who contemplates it. To me, it is 'wrong' but there are societeies where it is acceptable under conditions you/I would not agree with. Nevertheless, it still renders murder both right AND wrong

Answer 1

You have a good point. What we need to consider, however, is the fact that no one lives in a vacuum. Everything we do has the capacity to affect others, so an ordered society must have SOME rules to keep one person or group from harming another. You don't have the right to arbitrarily take my life, and I don't have the right to arbitrarily take yours, so our society needs a rule that says killing people (except in self-defense, defense of family, or in the proper performance of duties as a law enforcement officer or military member) is wrong.

The reason you won't get most religious people to bend is because they're convinced that they're RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG and anyone who doesn't believe what they believe poses a threat. In some cases, the threat is very real. Case in point: The Islam extremists in terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda -- they believe giving their lives in an attempt to kill non-believers is the best thing they can do in this life and that they will be richly rewarded by Allah if they do that. How do you argue with such a belief? You can't. There is NO WAY you're going to convince those people that blowing themselves up to kill innocent people is wrong. And this is where many Americans are very short-sighted: These people are the Terminators of the Middle East. They can't be bought, they can't be bargained with, they can't be reasoned with, they can't be persuaded with the right words or with tears or pleas for mercy or tolerance -- their mission is to kill Americans and they absolutely WILL NOT STOP, period. So as painful as it is for us to admit, we have to kill them or they'll kill us.

Would the world be a much safer place if people were open-minded enough to respect the opinions of other people and other cultures? Yes. The problem is not all people are that open-minded (in fact, most people aren't).

Answer 2

Over opinionated opinions to the point they start to feal none but thiers are correct. To most people's religions, beliefs are not subjective of being opposed. I guess that is where an open mind comes in to find the gap between differences. What is correct for one person is not justified to the truth of another. That is just the nature of the world. And sometimes nature itself can prove it. For example, a person can be alergic to shellfish and another can have it with no problems. So in a sense, nature intended it not for all. But with this proof of nature, now it helped in the process of what is koshur foods. Because shellfish are not supposed to be eaten according to the laws of moses(pbuh), but fish are acceptable. Shrimp and so forth. But no crabs or lobster.

Religion should be able to give one the power of thought to distinguish what is right and what is wrong not through compelling comulsion. But freedom of choice. And you are correct that not evryone is correct. The only reason people find it correct, is because it functions. But that is no excuse. Just because it functions, does not make it correct. A person can sell drugs and make over $100,000 a year profit. It is not correct, but finctions. And the person selling it thinks it ok because for the simple premise of "it works for me". After a while, it is thier lifestyle and is hard to change. Just like those of religions. Because that is all they know.

Edit: Back to your food analogy. America is a christian nation correct. But I hardly doubt an american would consider eating horse meat. But if you go to Italy, they sell horse meat off the racks in grocery stores like we do chicken and beef. And Italy too is a christian nation. So I guess "to each his own". "Everybody has to take a sh*t, but there is only one toilet" LOL.

BTW- I am religous and opinionated. But accept that regardless of what I think, the world still turns. PEACE!

Answer 3

That particular example may be subjective, however it would be totally wrong to think that the same principle could be applied to all things.

For instance, would you say that murder is both right and wrong? would you say that taking someones car is right or wrong? Adultery, is that right or wrong?

Some things are obviously wrong because they cause harm to others either directly or indirectly. Although we as humans have many different versions of exactly what is right and wrong, it would be logical to conclude that god - who after all gave us such things as the capacity for having a sense of justice and a conscience - should be the one to decide what is right or wrong, including what is the right way to worship him.

Answer 4

If right and wrong is totally subjective, what keeps us from practising man-eating as in barbarian cultures? Do you suggest there is nothing intrinsically wrong in preferring human organs/ meat as dinner?

Taking the discussion one step further: if majority's consensus is all it takes to make something "right", why punish war prisoners like Nazi officers? They agreed among themselves the Holocaust were necessary and even gained substantial support from outside the army, didn't they?

I believe there are still absolutes in life that are irreducible and uncompromisable.

Answer 5

I disagree. Situational ethics, which is what you are endorsing, is a demonstrably flawed concept.

I doubt many people really consider eating a dog to be "right" or "wrong" in the same way that they consider killing someone in cold blood to be "right" or "wrong". Do you?

Many things are trivial and some are not so trivial, but the existence of an absolute truth is an absolute truth. :-)

Answer 6

I think that your right, but religion and society have too much invested in the concept of right and wrong to ever admit that what you are saying is true even if they were smart enough to understand it.

Religion in particular could not exist with out the bad people to be better than.

Think about it..

Love and blessings Don

Answer 7

What about cruelty? What about death? Are these inherent?

If I assume you're atheistic, and I offered to take you with me tomorrow when I go child-hunting, would you go with me? If I told you we were going to do drive-bys of schoolyards and blast some children with sniper rifles, and not to worry because I can guarantee we won't get caught, would you join me?

[I am not actually going to do this]

Why not? What is the source of your morality? Where did you get your sense of right and wrong? Is it different from a sense of good and evil? Is there such a thing as "evil" to an atheist?

Answer 8

What you seek is some logical basis for a moral system. I will offer one: evolution, which applies to societies as well as species. An action may be defined as moral if it enhances the survival of the society, immoral if it detracts, and morally neutral if it does neither. It is easy to see that common moral precepts such as don't murder and don't steal fit nicely into this -- obviously, crimes of this sort are a detriment to the overall society.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Right and wrong become objective once you establish an objective value in which they support. And the only value we can all have in common are our own life. Nature agrees with that. Otherwise we would all be a collective mind.