Originally posted by yoctobyte
... for determining morality?
In another thread I asked the question "What are the rules for determining morality?" For atheists, without using the bible or any religion, what guides and forms your morality?
I am not sure that there are 'The Rules' of how you determine morality...
At least not as I think you mean the phrase.
There are a number of different systems for creating a secular moral code, on
which I am not an expert so I am not about to try to explain them all here.
However, speaking generally, I think you need to start by asking what morality
actually is. And the best description I know of is Sam Harris' where he describes
morality as [and I am paraphrasing] a system for determining what behaviours,
courses of action, and laws, produce a society that best maximises the wellbeing of
it's members.
So the test for a moral system is how well it maximises the wellbeing of the people
who adhere to it. The more we know about how people function, and what makes
people happy, healthy, and content, The better a moral system we can devise.
There may well be more than one way to maximise wellbeing and thus there may
well be no one 'right answer', or 'The Rules' to follow.
This does not mean that there are not clearly wrong answers, which there emphatically
are.