Quote:
Originally posted by chavos
as for humanism, the fundamental axiom is "i would not like." Humanity is the final arbiter of morality, and so if another would like to be lied to, you don't really have a claim for wrong when they lie to you. Preferences do not make an absolute.
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Oh yes they do. When a society as a whole determines that something is bad, it is bad. period. Anyone doing the "bad" thing is a criminal/amoral/bad. Thus, this moral system is "greater than man", in that it is part of the culture of that society, and any one man typically cannot change that.
You derive your moral authority from a possibly-nonexistant divine source; I derive my moral authority from a definately existing cultural system. I do not need a higher authority than that; I *know* some things are bad, because my culture says they are. That is all I need.