Looking over the posts, I dare say there may be some hope for this site, after all. People are challenging each other's views, and I've noticed people rejecting all views, after reading comments from both "sides" of the political spectrum. This leads to open minds and challenges people to think, which is beneficial, rather than being spoon-fed a belief, political or otherwise. Morality is in the realm of opinion, not facts, so this creates a conflict when people with different opinions or views clash. With opinions, there is no right or wrong answer, it is up to the individual to decide what they believe. Just like not everyone likes pizza, and some people love spinach, while others hate it.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.This hope you speak of... you must be referring to the conservative atheists group on here
SpikeTalon
Level 9
Nov 7, 2018
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I'd like to challenge your assertion that opinions are formed without facts and are just opinions.
People form their opinions from the evidence they believe that find around them which informs their viewpoint. Political views are informed mostly through tradition (dad was a captialist/socialist etc) and lazyness. It's good to stay in our comfort zones and listen to the news channel which most reinforces our pre-conceived ideas. We are too lazy to challenge the sources we trust (and I often include myself in this) and actually check out other sources of information and research that may contradict our views.
Morality can be based on fact and can be objective, provided you have an agreed definition of what morality is. If you agree with the Sam Harris/Matt Dillahunty definition that morality equates to wellbeing, you can then make objective assessments as to whether an action works towards that goal.
Oh, and religious morality is not morality at all, it is amoral. It is simply whatever their deity says is moral, there is no objective assessment there at all.
And I'm not keen on pizza either.
Uncorrugated
Level 7
Oct 26, 2018
1
@Wellspring I agree, However, addiction and use are separate issues. Interesting that you used drugs as the example and not alcohol (also a drug).
Just because drug addiction (in itself) is not violent, doesn't make it unharmful, so from a wellbeing point of view it is harmful and thus immoral. Morally, the best course of action would be that which produces the best outcomes for all involved. Personally I dislike the term morality as it has too much baggage with it.
You stated that opinions are not based on facts - they are. We may disagree on the interpretation of the facts and we often make our opinions without having the full facts of the matter to hand, but we base what we think and do on the information we have to hand most of the time. We do sometimes act purely on 'gut instinct' too, but even that is often infomed by past experience.
I do however agree fully that it is not simple and many moral decisions are made on an emotional level which gives lots of grey areas, where individuals will weight the importance of given facts differently and reach different conclusions. So yes, we can come to different opinions given the same facts. And that's what makes debate interesting and so much fun.
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