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| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
I have a few simple moral rules that I live by in my day to day existence, such as:
Don't lie.
Don't kill anybody.
Don't hurt anybody except in self-defense.
Don't break promises.
Don't cheat.
The funny thing is, I almost never do any of these things, nor do I even want to do any of them most of the time. Conflict between my desires and my moral convictions is very rare. It seems like I almost never face any real "moral dilemmas."
Now, I don't believe that there is an objective morality written into the nature of the universe, but sometimes it strikes me as suspicious how neatly my desires coincide with what my practical moral code allows me to do.
Any thoughts? |
Quite a few, actually 
It's not at all surprising that you don't find yourself having moral dillemas that often. You probably live in a rather cultural homogenous area, I suppose, in the sense that there are few (if any) cultures around that condone any of those acts your refrain from.
Japanese culture, for example, tolerates lies quite openly, as long as you're lying in order to be polite. Those of us coming from a Christian background, in which lying is seen as a bad thing, probably see that both as wrong and inevitable: Don't our parents teach us to thank for a gift even if we hate it? Some of us may not even consider that to be a lie (although I wonder what else it could be).
As for killing, we probably don't realise how often we need to kill othjer living beings in order to live. Some hardcore vegetarians do realise it, and Buddhists often remind us that we will not get an extra life every time we stomp a hundred bugs. Most likely, you apply this rule only to human beings and pets (probably because we tend to "humanise" them), but because this belief often goes unchallenged (?), there's little need to revise it.
Finally, I've read claims about there being some biological foundations to morality, but I know too little about this subject.
My point is: If you abide by these rules, and you feel you're helping yourself (and others) this way, it is unlikely that you will face a moral dilemma anytime soon.
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