tronvillain

Bill Snedden:
While that describes how I feel about my own relationships, I don't think that it would necessarily reflect an inconsistency or incoherence in value system if I didn't. While I don't really approve of cheating, I don't assume that people who do are inconsistent or incoherent. It is theoretically possible to hae your cake and eat it too.

Vorkosigan

You know, Haran, at this point, it might be better for you to come right out and make your point, rather than put up hypotheticals. What's your point?

Michael

Hobbs

I figure that he either doesn't have one, or he realizes that his point isn't a very good one and he doesn't want to have to admit it. He seems to be under the mistaken impression that we haven't thought much about these issues, and perhaps he's seeing that there's quite a bit that he has not thought much about or realized.

Bill Snedden

Of course, there are those who believe in what one might call "open marriage", in which what we might think of as "cheating" doesn't really exist. For them there is no inconsistency. In other words, if both parties understand that there will be extra-marital relationships, there is no conflict, no inconsistency, no contradiction. I suppose in some sense they do "have their cake and eat it too", but only colloquially.

However, the manner in which Haran phrased his question led me to believe that he was talking about an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, "cleave unto thee, forsaking all others" type of marriage. In this type of marriage, where a bond or promise has been made, extra-marital affairs do involve an inconsistency in professed values (love, trust, & commitment on the one side vs. forbidden hot monkey-love on the other ).

Regards,

Bill Snedden

99Percent

tronvillain: It is theoretically possible to hae your cake and eat it too.

Prove it, without implying death in the last second.

You know, Haran, at this point, it might be better for you to come right out and make your point, rather than put up hypotheticals. What's your point?

His point, my guess is, is that atheistic morals are a mess. Truthfully, he is failing.

Vorkosigan

There are too many of us. Perhaps if Haran was one-half of a formal debate, and one of us was the other......

Michael

tronvillain

Bill Snedden:
I wasn't actually referring to "open relationships." I just don't think having an affair in a marriage necessarily involve any inconsistency or contradiction. Yes, they may be violating trust, love, and commitment to some degree, but there isn't necessarily anything inconsistent or contradictory about that.

tronvillain

99Percent:
I meant it in the sense that Bill Snedden used it - that it is possible to cheat on a spouse without being inconsistent or contradictory. Well, perhaps contradictory, but only about things that one has said and that isn't a logical contradiction.

goody2shoes

Actually, Haran, 100% self preservationis the only logical "morality" for an intelligent atheist. Everything else is a smokescreen. Even Reasonable Doubt seems to know that this is not rocket science.

Goody.

Haran

Goody, I have to say that I think that you are very honest and have taken a very serious look at the issue of morality from an Atheistic perspective. I agree that RD seems to have seen this too as have several others here.

Haran