Keith

What is the significance of societal consensus? I'm trying to understand why a majority of people MUST automatically be the defining thing for determining what is/isn't morally right. Is the majority consensus morally "right" because majorities are more clear-thinking than individuals?

winstonjen

How about "The good of the many outweighs the good of the few"? Is that enough? Or do you want another reason?

yguy

"The many" were the Aztecs, Mayans and other practicioners of human sacrifice. "The few" were those who were sacrificed.

Biff the unclean

What is the significance of societal consensus? I'm trying to understand why a majority of people MUST automatically be the defining thing for determining what is/isn't morally right.

Because that's what morals are. They have nothing to do with any gods giving commands. They have nothing to do with the dictates of governments. They are the behaviors that enable groups of humans to function as groups. They are nothing but societal consensus. An individuals moral status is judged by how closely their personal moral beliefs mirror his society's standards.

That's why people who have never heard of god or England are still moral. And why people who love god and the Queen are not necessarily moral at all.

Biff the unclean

That is why in their society human sacrifice was common. It was dictated by God and considered moral.
Bashing the brains out of their own childrens skulls was moral to people like Jesus.

Fortunately our society is secular and in it, by general consensus, these religious practices are now considered immoral.

yguy

That, of course, is a bald-faced lie.

How reassuring. Funny how such "secular clearheadedness" seems to produce the likes of Steven Pinker and Peter Singer who find clever justifications for infanticide, along with the likes of Harry Hay and Allen Ginsberg, who did likewise for child buggery.

Biff the unclean

No, dumb bell, Jesus takes the Jews to task for not obeying god's law (Lev 20:9) about beating disobedient children to death in the scene where they complain that he doesn't wash up before meals.

And who says that child molesters are moral? Have you lost your mind?

yguy

That was not child sacrifice, it was punishment for a crime.

I just told you who. And just a few years ago, there was a study by a gaggle of secular loons claiming there is no evidence for the idea that child molestation harms children.

HelenM

You're bringing up that again?

Anyway, where did they say "there is no evidence for the idea that child molestation harms children"? What they actually said in their conclusion is:

The results of our reviews clearly show that the assumptions of most mental health professionals, legislators, law enforcement personnel, media workers, and the lay public that sexual relations defined as CSA cause intense harm pervasively for both boys and girls are vastly exaggerated.

That's not what you wrote.

Helen

yguy

Fine, I stand corrected on the technical point. That these creeps are attempting to confer value neutrality on intergenerational sex is nonetheless obvious to more people than just me.