Who/What defines Right and Wrong? Pop culture? God? Religious writings?
I have an opinion; Whats yours?
2006-11-09 08:00:00 · 19 answers · asked by King 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Morality can't be decided by popular opinion, because right is right and wrong is wrong.
Just as we can't decide the sun should move west to east -- we think whatever we think, but that doesn't change reality.
Harm is wrong. 'Cause suffering sucks.
What people DO decide, sometimes sorta by popular opinion, are laws, which are another matter (it would be nice if law and morality were better matched).
Also, changes in the arbitrary aspects of ettiquette are determined by popular opinion.
Until whoever it was in a previous answer said it was a shame that rape is considered wrong (if I'm understanding that comment), that person had a pretty good handle on it.
But clearly rape, as a particularly devastating form of violence, is clearly wrong.
But the basic idea that morality has to do with what we are, the kind of critter we are, is right.
The problem with the 10 commandment is that several of them are arbitrary and even silly (most of the people who go on and on about them violate them every Sabbath by watching sports, for example), and the list as a whole leaves out a lot of things that are wrong.
For example, it's wrong to put another person in a double-bind or lose-lose situation, where no matter what they do they are hammered or punished.
2006-11-09 10:23:40 · answer #1 · answered by tehabwa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Morality is decided by our evolutionary history. We are social animals. That is how we adapt so well to the world around us (and how we cause the world to adapt to us). In order to have a properly functioning society, it is necessary that certain rules be followed, and those who disobey those rules are punished. Some are instinctive (such as murder, etc.), and some have been decided on by our culture (such as rape, sadly).
We can see the evidence for the evolution of morality because other species portray moral behavior, and those species that have a more complex social structure have more advanced moral behavior (though, certainly, behaviors that are very different from our own). Morality is written into our genetic makeup.
2006-11-09 08:10:03 · answer #2 · answered by abulafia24 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. For years and years 1000's of thousands of people in heritage all *knew* the Earth replaced into flat. It replaced into obtrusive. purely look at it. that is flat i might want to assert they were quite deluded. For years and years 1000's of thousands of people reported slavery replaced into moral. it really is purely how that is. also quite deluded. We people have a surprising means for deluding ourselves. The issues that on the prompt are idea by particular people as "purely how that is, so that is ridiculous to imagine otherwise" will be interior an similar boat because the flat Earthers and the pro-slavers, some centuries from now.
2016-11-28 23:27:37 · answer #3 · answered by rieck 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that should reside with the individual to the degree that their decision doesn't infringe others. For instance, society can agree that murder must be wrong, stealing, etc... these things infringe on the rights of others. When it comes to some of the contentious social issues of today though I think we are drifting away from being a democratic, tolerant society. I am not gay and can't imagine being gay but I have no desire to pass laws restricting their lives, they do me no harm.
2006-11-09 08:05:38 · answer #4 · answered by Zen Pirate 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Each individual defines and decides his/her own Morality within the boundaries set forth in law( Federal, State, and Local)
2006-11-09 08:05:08 · answer #5 · answered by ? 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It already is, and unfortunately opinion is not necessarily based on fact. Six billion people all believing that unicorns exist won't make one appear on the Jay Leno show, even if they all claim it would be the Second Coming of the Unicorn.
2006-11-09 08:20:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whether it should or not, it can *only* be decided that way. On the largest scale, anyway. The majority in the society you live in decides what's right and wrong for everyone in that society. There's simply no other way it can even be done.
Right and wrong is completely subjective. What's right to you may not be right to society, and what's right in your society may not be right in someone else's.
2006-11-09 08:10:16 · answer #7 · answered by The Resurrectionist 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The Liberal Humanist point is just that, to let people decide for themselves what is right and wrong because truth is relative. The fact is that truth and morality are not relative, is murder of an innocent person good for one person and not for another? God gave us the perfect basis of morality, Ten Commandments.
2006-11-09 08:04:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
popular opinion already influences morality, just as culture and history do too.
2006-11-09 08:22:14 · answer #9 · answered by doG oN 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It already is. Society at large determines right or wrong. It's why Atheists still live moral lives.
2006-11-09 08:14:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋