A Modest Request
This book says impossible to know what is and is not the right thing to do. How can I then suggest things that you should are should not do? How could I know that? The miracle of the human conditions: we can talk about what is and is not good, without being 100% certain that we are right or wrong.
I hope that my non-believing friends will see that subjective morality is referring to a superficial aspect of morality. This is about the claims that people make about their beliefs, and about their intentions. Such as "I believe capital punishment is immoral." We simply can't know whether this is true or not. Maybe someday we will know, but for now it is a guess, it is an estimate.
Such a statement does reveal that the speak intents to act in concordance with that. They will vote against capital punishment, and might even object on moral grounds to refuse to participate in such an action. These claims are evidence of a subjective opinion: I find capital punishment distasteful.
But I still might be wrong. It could be that everyone is better off, and that all of society lives better, if we execute our worst offenders. I can't say for sure, but I have confidence that in the fullness of time the morality of capital punishment will be discovered if we continually strive to find those facts.
People have subjective opinions about morality, but that is not the same thing as saying that morals are subjective themselves. You favorite flavor of ice cream is a subjective opinion, and if you like Cherry Garcia best, nobody -- absolutely nobody -- can say you are wrong. Morality is about living your life properly, and it is ultimately about how we get along together. This is not the flavor of the month: how you live your life has objective consequences, and therefor there is an objective reality in what is good and bad when it comes to survival of everyone.
On the other side are my believing friends who clearly recognize that morality can not be arbitrary. They rightly say that we can not just decide that an action is good or bad. We agree that morals are objective.
My religious friends make the hasty assumption that moral rules are dictated by a God. That is a possibility, yet they should recognize that there are entirely natural sources for moral behavior. Stealing a neighbor's property is not wrong because God says so, but because a culture that considered it good to steal would never survive. Morality is not the arbitrary whims of an intelligence in the sky, it is in fact the rules to live by so that we all live the best possible. While it is possible that moral laws were laid down by lawgiver, it is not necessary for that to be the case. There are other perfectly good explanations for moral intuition and moral instincts. We must remain open minded to discover the true secrets of the universe.
My request is for all my friends to see that morality is a property of the universe that is related directly to our physical form. Morality is that behavior that allows us to live best together depending on our physical form. That follow directly from survivability.
We live the best life when we make the world better for each other. It will be hard work to discover the right way for people to live together on this small planet spinning through space. It will take untold generations of work along with many missteps along the way. We can do it.
The discovery of the most successful way to live together is in fact the most important goal of human existence.