Are morals absolute?

Question

Unless they aren't?

Any Christians or Muslims or Jews here have a take on moral absolutism or relativism?

i.e. Thou shalt not kill? Do you all follow this same moral? or is there an 'except' in there?

Thoughts please?

Very funny Bradleigh. Now would you care to expand on your answer...? You know, to actually address the points in the question? ;-)

Please state your religion, I am loooking for views from those who state that morals ARE absolute...

Thanks.

Please state your religion, I am loooking for views from those who state that morals ARE absolute...

Thanks.

PS, isn't the statement 'there are no absolutes' - an absolutist (therefore self-disproving) statement?

Michelle, I'm not questioning whetehr morals are necessary, I'm askign if they ARE absolute? Or do they have exceptions?

Sue, I checked out your Pro-Islam site. They couldn;t even spell 'atheist'. They didn't mention death for apostates either. How can I take it seriously?

Answer 1

I'm a Christian. I believe morals are absolute.

If someone is raised to believe something is moral in a specific region does that make it so?

Let's say a certain culture believes in human sacrifice. For us to say that it is alright for THEM to do so, THAT is moral relativism. But surely that is not our position.

Thou shalt not kill...
We might have "reasons" to kill. But is it ever morally right?
And that would probably be a different discussion.

Answer 2

~Let me think.

The phantom in the clouds brought us the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, assisted in the massacre of any number of poor souls in countless battles, pardoned the first murderer then cast him adrift as a pariah, and has had more people slaughtered in His name than any other three causes combined throughout history. Killing is a sin but god is on the side of the good guy in battles against the infidel. That one really requires a schizophrenic megalomaniac in the Middle East, no?

Hmmm, The Spirit in the Sky says don't kill nobody, the helps Moses kill Egyptions, learns Gideon to blow his horn and commands Abraham to commit infanticide, then takes out Lot's wife for simply watching the massacre he was getting his rocks off on.

Screw 'morals' as dictated by religion. Give me the philosphers who at least try to develop logical and consistent constructs. Better still, why not live by rule of law and justice and simple human grace, kindness, compassion, consideration and understanding. Yeah, that last is probably heresy, but what a wonderful world it could be. Imagine.

I know what is right and wrong and I don't need some jackass in a robe to explain it too me. As a matter of promoting morality, human unity, sooperation, prosperity, progress and peace, wouldn't we be better off without the conflicting dogmas of competing religions? If so, then wouldn't the moral thing to do be to kill all the 'holymen'? Now that I could go along with.

Answer 3

Our morals derive from the instinct we and all social animals have to be slightly nice to others of our own kind. Game theory shows that behaviour driven by this instinct has a positive feedback element, that tends to cause people to become progressively nicer and fairer to others - until war, famine or other disaster resets us back to the baseline.

A social animal's ethos is useless to a lone predator, who lives in an 'every leopard for itself' environment.

Our basic instinctive social sense could be described as absolute, but the 'of our own kind' clause leaves plenty of room to be ghastly to those we consider not-us.

CD

Answer 4

Morals are the bane of humanity....

And no... nothing is absolute. Every individual aspect of existence is subjective. The problem is when subjective individuals with their own set of morals start taking those morals as absolute and use it to justify blatant snap-misjudgements of situations.
A good judge will have no morals, and rather will judge each situation without bias on its own causes and effects.


[Edit]: Those who state "there are no absolutes" are being a little crude and not so careful with their wording. Were there no absolutes then there would be no concept of absolution. The reality of the matter is that there are only two absolutes: existence and non-existence, all and null.... Yang and Yin if you prefer. All we know is a mixture of those two in some form or other. And even then, those are never separated into their absolution as they are effectively inseparable.

Answer 5

Morals aren't absolute, they vary by culture and even geographical region.

Take for instance "Thou shalt not kill", if that was an absolute then everyone would have to be conscientious objectors when it came to warfare.

Answer 6

There are no absolutes. The wise do not have the answers only the tools to find the answers in a given circumstance.

There are few absolutes...point taken.

Answer 7

peace be upon you
Some people ve morals and others no.
If we follow religion ,it will not be absolute and it will spread.
our mesenger Mohammed say:
"i was delegated as a prophet to perfect the moral virtues" hw also say:
" you will not enter the paradise untill you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another,
Let me guide you to something in doing of which you will love one another,
Give a greeting to everyone among you"

Answer 8

Morals are not useless and should be absolute. They guide your life and keep you on the right path.

Answer 9

I think they are relative. That is why there is differences in interpreatation of the same law by different religions.

Answer 10

morals are the wheels of human society on which riding is possible!