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Philosophy/religion

Join our Philosophy forum to discuss religion and spirituality.

Moral Absolutes?

13 replies

harrisey · 19/05/2007 20:31

My dh and I are doing an essay for college on postmodern society, its attitude to sin/right and wrong etc.....

So - let the court of Mumsnet speak. On several threads I have get the feeling that to MNetters Adultery is one of them. Are there any others. What do you think the Moral Absolutes that everyone should abide by are? Are there any? Why?

OP posts:
lulumama · 19/05/2007 20:33

thou shalt not kill is a no brainer i think !

squidette · 19/05/2007 20:35

No, there are no absolutes. If there were, we wouldnt do them.

moondog · 19/05/2007 20:35

Wot,they let you study together or is he helping you?

TheArmadillo · 19/05/2007 20:36

but surely thou shalt not kill is more complicated than that. What about issues such as abortion or euthanasia? WHat if you were put in a situation where the only way to stop someone killing a loved one was to kill them yourselves. WHat about even eating meat or similar? What about police shooting an armed person who was about to kill others?

Adultery I think is one I agree with but can't think of any more atm. WIll come back to this

lulumama · 19/05/2007 20:37

you are right

it isn;t a no brainer

will go and find a nice safe labour thread!!

harrisey · 19/05/2007 20:38

Nah, moondog we're both on the same course but I thought of asking here!!

OP posts:
moondog · 19/05/2007 20:41

Have had two glasses of rose so brain now mush unfortunately.

Judy1234 · 19/05/2007 20:52

Some things are always wrong (like sexism in marriage.....).

Not sure what "postmodern" means, though. Would like to know.

harrisey · 19/05/2007 21:27

postmodern - In theological terms (I'm doing a theology degree) the supposed norm in society today. All is relative, your morals and spirituality are a personal matter, rejection of organsied religion, "as long as you dont hurt anyone you can believe whatever you like" etc. Mix and match approach - covering all the bases.

In wider thought (and the above is just an example) it is a rejection of modernism, which was the beleif that the world was all reducible to scientific explanation and there is no such thing as anything beyond what we can observe (eg God, heaven, ghosties etc).

I think

hth

OP posts:
Judy1234 · 19/05/2007 22:55

Oh, a bit of a confusing term when "modern" is an ordinary word we all understand so post modern is in a sense nonsensical as a concept if you use modern to mean what it means. Modern then would be whatever is in fashion now so post modern surely would just mean after today into the future.

gothicmama · 19/05/2007 23:01

to me post moderdern right and wrong exists only in the eye of the beholder cos there are societal points of reference if everyone mixes and matches therefore it is only the limitations of self which act as a moral compass but these will be different for everyone therefore there can be neither right nor wrong per se but only congruence with the self

gothicmama · 19/05/2007 23:02

oops sorry should be no societal points of reference

DominiConnor · 19/05/2007 23:20

Part of the modern view of morals has to deal with the fact that that 1,500 to 3,000 years ago, people simply didn't have the intellectual tools we do.
In all the classical religiously enforced moral systems, there is nothing resembling doubt, except as a vice for the weak.
This reflects the idea that societies were small, and one could reasonably work out the consequences of actions, much like playing snooker.
That's why religious morality can be excellent on a personal level, but once it is applied to anthing larger than a village, bad things happen so inevitably.

Sometimes you have to play the averages. Immunisation is a good point. You inject a million kids per year with anything, and you will harm some of them, quite possibly fatally.
Mass immunisation saves quite literally millions of lives per year. But there is a cost in human lives, often small children.

Thus you have killed an innocent, a sin in pretty much any religion. you don't have the let out that you didn't know, because if you are qualified to run immunisation programmes, you wil know this happens.
Don't think anyone here would call that a sin, unless you knew a way to make it better.

I defy anyone to find a justification for that view in the core of any religion. Certainly not in the Bible. X is compulsory, Y is punishable by death, and we ought to lave certaqin people and hate others but "play the averages and hope for the best" is glaringly absent. Indeed, again I defy you to find any command in the Bible to "think things through".
You are told to obey, not think.

Islam has a slightly more advanced notion, being later, where the will of Allah is a faint grasp that the future cannot possibly be predicted by faith or science.

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