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I would like to join other posters in welcoming migrants from /r/im14andthisisdeep
How does morality determine what is right?
People determine what is right based on their morals. Not everyone agrees on what that means for every situation but there are some widely-accepted ideas for how to make those decisions. By adulthood, it’s generally something you’ll have an intuitive sense for since moral reasoning begins developing early in life. Even if you’re deciding (or being forced) to do immoral things, people tend to be capable of recognizing that what they’re doing is wrong. One problem with religion that is identified in the picture above is that in the case of a conflict between a person’s faith and their morality, religious influence may override their sense of right and wrong which can lead to conflicts, both internal and external. I don’t know if that’s what you’re asking though.
Hopefully that wasn’t too vague of a response, I’m not the most qualified person in the world to explain but there’s no shortage of reading material on the subject. It’s one of those things people have been talking and writing about more or less since the dawn of talking and writing.
How is overriding sense of morality is a problem? Doesn’t your sociocultural background already do that, leading to conflicts?
Based on my experience, people seem to override their religion more than the opposite. I doubt if those mega rich pastors, pedophile priests, extremists, and hate groups actually care about what their religions say. It seems that they just do whatever the fuck they want and do all sort of mental gymnastics to justify their actions and make themselves feel better about it. I’d much prefer if religion actually overrides these people’s morality
You, uh, ever look into the inquisition? Maybe the crusades?
Most wars in human history have been caused by religious distinctions.
Humanity has justified an awful lot of shitty behavior on account of religion
Humanity has justified an awful lot of shitty behavior on account of religion
That’s exactly my point?
If you take an in depth look of those events, there were always inherent political and economical motives. Explicitly saying that you want to assert authority, consolidate power, and acquire more land and wealth by slaughtering bunch of innocent people sounds awful, doesn’t it?
Saying that most wars are caused by religion seems like a stretch, considering conflicts have existed long before human even existed and fights are going to happen anyway. I’m not sure if that’s any worse than invading Iraq for “freedom” or Stalin and Mao killing their people because they were “counter-revolutionaries”
Kants categoric imperative. There are rules that apply for anyone taking no-power abuse as referential
I’m sorry, no. There are so many problems with Kant’s categorical imperative. It comes from a tradition of trying to impose simplistic rules onto an inherently complex and messy subject. The Categorical Imperative would just cause misery if it were applied universally, which defeats the whole purpose of morality.
Morality isn’t about rules or dictating what people can’t do. It’s about promoting well-being.
There is always a better way. Till there is no more.
I disagree. Religion is saying what you are doing is right because it comes from your religion.
I think you’re taking an… absolutist view of right-and-wrong, whereas the idea of “right” for religious people is exclusively through the lense of their religion.
Murdering a child to you might be objectively bad, and seeing a religious person do it (or support it) might look like someone doing evil, knowing it’s evil, because they were told to do so. But if their god (or religious leader expressing the will of their god) told them to do it, it is right to do it, and the only right thing to do is what is told (plenty of examples of this playing out in religious texts).
I read a quote by an Indian author, Khushwant Singh, “Morality is a matter of money, that’s why poor people have relegion”.
So rich people have moral…?
Makes things even more scummy when you look at religions with tithing or branches emphasizing things like prosperity gospel. People without the money to spare fork it over anyway in the hope that their faith will be rewarded but it never is. Better off buying lottery tickets since even though odds of winning are low, at least they’re higher than zero.
