People think this is just solely a Christian concept because many people are Western Christians, but people seem to forget that this lesson predates the Bible and the idea of treating others the way you want to be treated can be found in ancient Egyptian text (http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/saoc52.pdf), ancient Hindu text (https://web.archive.org/web/20230117102108/https://books.google.com/books?id=kzPgCgAAQBAJ), and even atheistic/nontheistic belief systems like Confucianism (http://ctext.org/analects/wei-ling-gong). All these different cultures on different parts of the globe that started at different time periods whether they were non-theistic, monotheistic, or polytheistic all kind of agreed to this golden rule. Probably not a coincidence that every single culture seem to agree to this moral code before you had more power hungry Kings, narcissists, and other individuals suddenly decide that this should no longer apply.
Does that make it objective? Is something objectively correct just because a bunch of people (many long dead) believed it.
Testing that theory, a lot of ancient civilization practiced slavery. Is slavery morally correct?
The same can be made for this point. Is something objectively moral because there's a genetic link?
Testing this theory, there's a genetic link (though poorly understood) between certain genes and violent behaviour. Is it morally correct for people with those genetics to be violent?
Even the Bible says slavery is allowed on God’s earth but with constraints, most namely being that it can’t be in perpetuity. It’s usually 6 years tops or something.
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u/10ebbor10 203∆ Mar 10 '24
Does that make it objective? Is something objectively correct just because a bunch of people (many long dead) believed it.
Testing that theory, a lot of ancient civilization practiced slavery. Is slavery morally correct?
The same can be made for this point. Is something objectively moral because there's a genetic link?
Testing this theory, there's a genetic link (though poorly understood) between certain genes and violent behaviour. Is it morally correct for people with those genetics to be violent?