Explain to me why the following things are wrong

N

Norsefire

Salam Shalom Salom
Registered Senior Member
Murder
Rape
Stealing
Torture
Kidnapping
Genocide

And anything else of the nature that, today, is considered "wrong".

Please explain to me why it is wrong, with something other than "well, it's wrong". And don't say "because you are taking something that doesn't belong to you" or "because you are killing people"

Why are those things wrong?

I do have an actual motive for this thread other than the question, something that am trying to see by studying your responses. However, I first want to see what you come up with.
 
Honestly there is no reason that these things are wrong other then the fact that you are taking a life or taking someones personal property the main reason these things are wrong is because society says they're wrong. I'm sure that in history there have been many counts on which murder has not been wrong consider war or the medieval times murder isn't wrong then. The only thing that makes the difference between wrong and right are our own minds.

However i do not condone doing any of these things truly i could never even steal a stick of gum without it assaulting my conscience forever.
 
Norsefire said:
Murder
Rape
Stealing
Torture
Kidnapping
Genocide

And anything else of the nature that, today, is considered "wrong".

Please explain to me why it is wrong, with something other than "well, it's wrong". And don't say "because you are taking something that doesn't belong to you" or "because you are killing people"

Why are those things wrong?

I do have an actual motive for this thread other than the question, something that am trying to see by studying your responses. However, I first want to see what you come up with.
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Quite simple, actually.:)

Because in order to maintain a society that is relatively peaceful, prosperous, free from excessive fear and promotes some degree of happiness for it's citizens - and that will grow and improve - it's necessary to adhere to such basic human rights as "your rights stop where my nose begins."
 
Read-Only said:
Quite simple, actually.

Because in order to maintain a society that is relatively peaceful, prosperous, free from excessive fear and promotes some degree of happiness for it's citizens - and that will grow and improve - it's necessary to adhere to such basic human rights as "your rights stop where my nose begins."
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All of that is subjective. If I thought murder was A-OK, can I kill people? If it made me happy, peaceful, free from fear, etc?
 
Norsefire said:
Rape
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is wrong because 1) I don't want myself or anyone I love to be on either end of that activity. 2) it is an act that is not really dealing with the problem it is trying to solve AND causes other pain 3) It is confusing an activity that is meant to express affection and attraction with acts for expressing anger. As a wild euphemism you could say it is incredibly poor communication and shows a lack of self awareness. 4) it is a short cut that causes others pain. 5) one participant is not a willing one and has done nothing to justify their being brought into the activity. If they have flirted 'too much' they can be yelled at or ignored or gossiped about, or more honestly cried in front of. Which leads to 5) rape is a lie.
 
Interesting post, I too am interested in seeing people’s responses as I enjoy seeing what people think about all sorts of topics…

Now to the topic..

As for me, I personally think it’s because these things listed (Murder, Rape, Torture, etc..) encroach on another person’s right’s to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, (especially murder) therefore that is why society says they are wrong, and I agree!
In the natural order of animals these things don’t matter as it is the survival of the fittest so the things you listed (Murder, rape, torture) are natural, but ‘MAN’ is suppose to be civilized, although I cannot tell this at times with such things as the genocide in Darfur, the war in Iraq, Hitler in WWII, UN workers raping and molesting children, and the list goes on….

So if one wants to argue that the things you listed (Murder, rape, torture, etc) are part of our natural animal instinct I would agree, but they have no place in civilized societies, wherever those societies might exist.

I live on a farm so I see animal instincts all the time, have you ever watched chicken and seen their true pecking order? It can be very interesting when you apply it to other animals including humans…..
 
Norsefire,

Nobody can explain to you why these things are considered, by and large, to be "wrong". In fact, there are varying opinions as to how severe the aforementioned practices are, and I'm sure many people have exceptions for them, too. People may consider murder to be "wrong", but there are always exceptions: self-defense; warfare; capital punishment; etc. Stealing is the same: is it "wrong" to steal if you have no other way to feed your family? The only reason these practices are universally considered "wrong" is because we have laws in place dictating so. Furthermore, those laws are based on a given society's standards of morality, which itself is based on religion. Essentially, unless you have religion telling you what is and isn't "wrong", there is no way of concluding which practices are permissible, and which practices are wrong. Left to themselves, people will do as they please, meaning some will engage in these practices because they won't think it's "wrong" (regardless of what the victim believes).


Kadark
 
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Norsefire said:
Murder
Rape
Stealing
Torture
Kidnapping
Genocide

And anything else of the nature that, today, is considered "wrong".

Please explain to me why it is wrong, with something other than "well, it's wrong". And don't say "because you are taking something that doesn't belong to you" or "because you are killing people"

Why are those things wrong?

I do have an actual motive for this thread other than the question, something that am trying to see by studying your responses. However, I first want to see what you come up with.
Click to expand...
Mankind is a social species that functions best when working together. However, if we are to work together we need rules to guide our interactions. Otherwise, society would degenerate into chaos and a war of all against all.

Each individual agrees to not violate the basic human rights of other human beings in exchange for the understanding that no one else will violate his rights. This is the "social contract".

All the things you listed are violations of basis human rights. As such, they are "wrong".
 
mad is correct, all these sorts of things related to social interactions. We were actually discussing something similar to this yesterday acording to my lecture there is a myth about a guy called "gyges". This is a summery of the story:

Now this guy was so low down as a shepherd that NO ONE lissioned to him. when the other shepherds went to report to the king he was left behind. Now one day he wandered off and found a ring which he eventually worked out made him invisable. When the other shepherds went to report to the king they were kept well away from the palace gate but he just walked straight through because no one could see him. he walked up to the king, killed him and then suduced the queen and became the ruler.

Moral of the story, if your so above everyone else you can do anything

Now the rest of us dont have superpowers, we are relitivly balanced in abilities and there for must negotiate on a more or less equal term. How does this relate to your list?
These amongst other things are what we must give up in order for these equal negotiations to occure. By negotiation i mean any social interaction.
 
I can't say why other people few those certain actions as wrong, but as for me I follow the words of Jesus or whoever said it... the whole "Do onto others..." quote. For the most part when I'm making a judgement call on whether something is "wrong" or not I think how would I feel if someone did it to me. I wouldn't steal from my friend's wallet because I would not like it if someone were to steal from my wallet. I choose not to murder my neighbor's brother because I would not like it if someone murdered my brother. That's a very childish way to view the world I guess, but its worked for me thus far. New types of conflicts however would cause me to have to go with a different intuition or whatever it is that I would use to decide what is right and wrong.
 
Norsefire said:
Why is causing someone else pain, wrong?
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Because that's what most of us, including you, think. Most of us would think it was OK to cause pain in certain circumstances. But most of us would agree that it should be avoided if possible. Rape is easily avoided for the rapist, for example.
 
madanthonywayne said:
Mankind is a social species that functions best when working together. However, if we are to work together we need rules to guide our interactions. Otherwise, society would degenerate into chaos and a war of all against all.

Each individual agrees to not violate the basic human rights of other human beings in exchange for the understanding that no one else will violate his rights. This is the "social contract".

All the things you listed are violations of basis human rights. As such, they are "wrong".
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And if someone felt that murdering and raping each other was the best way to guide our interactions...?
 
actually its not cutsie, its the CORRECT way to view it. All your doing differently is looking BEHIND the "i dont do it because its wrong" to the reasons for why its "wrong"
 
Norsefire said:
And if someone felt that murdering and raping each other was the best way to guide our interactions...?
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Then most of us would consider them immoral. In fact there are people like that and we do think they are immoral.
It's like how you think about liberals.
 
Norsefire said:
Therefore, we have now reached my point: right and wrong do not exist. Murder is not wrong. I can kill you. Nobody can arrest me. Not legally.
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Technically you are right, the only distinction between right and wrong is your own personal beliefs in how to live your life, however if you murder someone the government will still have you arrested and jailed.
 
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