How do you justify moral actions?

[Tranquil Bondservant]

If everything is temporary and therefore in time will be forgotten, why does it matter if I do what is "good" according to the current culture?

 

[Unqualified]

Forgotten by men but not God. Heb 6:10. and Heb 13:16

 

[Tranquil Bondservant]

Forgotten by men but not God. Heb 6:10. and Heb 13:16

Amen. I'm coming from a Christian perspective in which a universal morality exists. The question is more aimed towards the non theists.

 

[FireDragon76]

If everything is temporary and therefore in time will be forgotten, why does it matter if I do what is "good" according to the current culture?

If something is good, it's worth doing whether or not there is a reward in the hereafter.

 

[Tranquil Bondservant]

If something is good, it's worth doing whether or not there is a reward in the hereafter.

Why?

 

[FireDragon76]

Why?

Because it is good.

 

[Tranquil Bondservant]

Because it is good.

To quote the OP "why does it matter if I do what is "good" according to the current culture?"

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Because it is good.

What is "the good"?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

If everything is temporary and therefore in time will be forgotten, why does it matter if I do what is "good" according to the current culture?

Because if you don't, you'll be ruining the "now" of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!"

 

[Astrid]

If everything is temporary and therefore in time will be forgotten, why does it matter if I do what is "good" according to the current culture?

Whose culture is that?

I suggest that you stop making your bed or attending
to anything else. Maybe the answer will come in
an epiphany.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-[incriminating] thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don't want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.

--Penn Jillette

 

[Astrid]

The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-[incriminating] thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don't want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.

--Penn Jillette

H. Atheists just appropriate gods morals and then
act like it's their idea

 

[FireDragon76]

What is "the good"?

"Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to others"

So doing good is to refrain from hurting others, to act in ways that benefit others, and not just yourself.

 

[essentialsaltes]

H. Atheists just appropriate gods morals and then
act like it's their idea

That's why we're always burning witches and gay people.

 

[Paulos23]

If everything is temporary and therefore in time will be forgotten, why does it matter if I do what is "good" according to the current culture?

Because future morals and culture will be built on the current one. If you want the future to change you need to make changes to your morals and actions now.

 

[Astrid]

That's why we're always burning witches and gay people.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

"Whatever is hurtful to you, do not do to others"

So doing good is to refrain from hurting others, to act in ways that benefit others, and not just yourself.

What happens if I invoke David Hume at this point?

Or what if I ask if your definition of "the good" has enough clarity and lack of ambiguity or vagueness that it can be Universally accepted?

What happens then?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

H. Atheists just appropriate gods morals and then
act like it's their idea

Obviously, this isn't the case.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-[incriminating] thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don't want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.

--Penn Jillette

Yeah, I agree. Some "religious people" do go overboard by reducing the impetus for being peaceable and beneficent to the level of mere emotive deterrence.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Because future morals and culture will be built on the current one. If you want the future to change you need to make changes to your morals and actions now.

Paulos, I'm just kind of wondering how this addresses the presence of Cultural Moral Relativism? What if none of us fully understands what "the good" really is? Then what?