Welcome to Gaia! ::

Reply Morality and Ethics
Morality and the Ten Commandments

Quick Reply

Enter both words below, separated by a space:

Can't read the text? Click here

Submit

Do you need to believe in the Ten Commandments to be moral and ethical?
  Yes
  No
  Have no opinion
View Results

Gelasius

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:01 pm


Do you really need to believe in the Ten Commandments to be moral and ethical?
PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2007 6:35 am


I had to vote the third option because this isn't quite a straightforward yes-no question for me. In my tradition of making this more complicated...

You do not need to uphold the specific moral code of the Ten Commandments specifically to be moral. You can have your own seperate code that works just as well, perhaps better for your given culture.

HOWEVER.

The moral and ethical maxims contained within the Ten Commandments are widely considered within the common moral consensus of human beings worldwide. If you look at it from that perspective, than the answer is a yes. Some of the specific points differ a bit but generally the Ten represents something close to our moral consensus, particularly when it comes to things like stealing, adultery, and murder.

Starlock
Vice Captain


Son of Axeman
Crew

PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2007 10:32 am



The only religious moral maxim anyone ever needs is "An harm ye none, do as ye will". At least Wicca got that much right.

To elaborate, all anyone needs is to follow John Stewart Mill's model of liberalism: Be free to exercise your rights, so long as you do not impede on the rights of others.

And, besides, the Bible cannot and should not be used as a moral standard for anyone. Breaking any of the Commandments, as stated in the Bible, warrants death, usually by stoning. If we're going to have any religious texts involved, can we at least not cherrypick them, please?
PostPosted: Sat May 05, 2007 7:05 am


I've heard arguments that the Wiccan Rede is a woefully inadequate moral rule of thumb. It is in essence a variety of the golden rule, so I'm not sure if those arguments I heard would then trickle down into all golden rules as a whole.

The problem with the Rede in particular may lie within what precisely constitutes 'harm.' I've heard many arguments citing that it is quite impossible to live without doing harm and that makes the advice of 'harming none' considerably more difficult. Historically, at least in the West, we exercise our rights giving consideration almost exclusively to the human domain. That's coming to bite us in the a** rather hard as of late. So what objects and entities are subject to consideration and which aren't? The general sentiment of Wiccans extends that to at least all living things, if not seeing all things, living and non-living, as sacred and bearing intrinsic rights. How do you go about balancing that?

Starlock
Vice Captain


kleokriesel

PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2007 2:24 pm


Son of Axeman

The only religious moral maxim anyone ever needs is "An harm ye none, do as ye will". At least Wicca got that much right.

To elaborate, all anyone needs is to follow John Stewart Mill's model of liberalism: Be free to exercise your rights, so long as you do not impede on the rights of others.

And, besides, the Bible cannot and should not be used as a moral standard for anyone. Breaking any of the Commandments, as stated in the Bible, warrants death, usually by stoning. If we're going to have any religious texts involved, can we at least not cherrypick them, please?


But then what about in situations that involve several people getting hurt no matter what? Or what if the hurt is necessary (example: it hurts to discipline your kids, but what if you don't?)? If something doesn't do harm, does that make it right?
PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 9:21 am



That's where ethical schools of thought come into play. Personally, I'm a utilitarian: sacrifice the few to save the many. Of course, I personalize this quite a bit, so that if you ask me if I would have 1000 people killed, or, say, my lover, I'd save my lover, as she's worth more to me than 1000 people. That aside, I'd sacrifice 100 to save 1000, and so on.

There is a difference between strict protection of rights (as in Mill's theory) and personal ethics (utilitarianism being one example).

Son of Axeman
Crew


ffdarkangel

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:39 pm


See, there is automatic moral system in us. It is called our sense of right and wrong. Even little kids realize when someone cries at their actions that they did something wrong. As we grow older, we begin to understand that suffering has to be gone though to reach a good end. We have to sometimes make someone suffer to help another person. Still, the orinial sense of right and wrong is still there.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 12:35 pm


ffdarkangel
See, there is automatic moral system in us. It is called our sense of right and wrong. Even little kids realize when someone cries at their actions that they did something wrong. As we grow older, we begin to understand that suffering has to be gone though to reach a good end. We have to sometimes make someone suffer to help another person. Still, the orinial sense of right and wrong is still there.


So you would be a supporter then of the argument for an innate morality that is intrinsic to all humans? Other perspectives include that morality is a culture construct or is learned behavior.

Starlock
Vice Captain

Reply
Morality and Ethics

 
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum