Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Personal Moral Primer

I will be writing a few posts summing up my views on morality as viewed by atheists and theists. As an opening, here are my views on the popular moral issues of the day.

killing - Murder one is wrong. Genocide=bad. Lynchings should be avoided. Killing in self-defence is not wrong. War-time kills against an enemy attacking your ideals is not wrong. Killing for your country could be wrong, it depends on the situation. Killing blindly according to an authority is not a good idea.

rape - This is a touchy subject. All rape is bad, but there is a range on my morality scale. A rapist who violently abducts a night-time jogger is worse than a frat-boy who takes advantage of a drunk Freshman, for example.

abortion
- I’m comfortable with first trimester abortions and think third trimester abortions are wrong. I’m not sure about second trimester, but I’d rather not see them aborted either. A collection of cells is not a person. A heartbeat isn’t even a person. When the fetus  can feel pain and brain development takes off...then we might have a person. The distinction of inside or outside the womb is arbitrary since hospitals can keep very early babies alive. A “miracle” of modern science. I have no reason to believe a soul is created at conception.

adultery - This isn’t wrong when you have an open marriage, but I’m not even sure if it is called adultery in that case. It’s worse when you have children then when you don’t because there are more victims involved, even if they are just emotional victims.

robbery - The more expensive or sentimental the object stole, the worse it is. This isn’t really a moral distinction from the robber’s point of view, since they often don’t know what they will heist, but there is a difference to the victim.

I don’t feel fornication or homosexuality are wrong as long as both involve consenting adults.

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