Is morality objective?
Or is morality subjective?
And by morality, I mean ethics.
But understand, your answer to this question has huge philosophical implications.
For if you and I are not the arbitrators of right and wrong, who is?
And on what basis do they claim this?
I think many people even take for granted the language used here.
For outside an objective moral law, what is “good” and “bad” anyway? And why aren’t my needs more important than yours?
In an earlier debate with Jesuit priest Frederick Copleston, Russell had tried another route to get around objective morality and ended up looking bad. When Copleston asked him how he differentiated between good and bad, Russell answered, “I don’t have any justification any more than I have when I distinguish between blue and yellow…. I can see they are different.” “Well, that is an excellent justification, I agree,” said Copleston. “You distinguish blue and yellow by seeing them, so you distinguish good and bad by what faculty?” “By my feelings,” was Russell’s reply. Father Copleston was kind. The next question was staring Russell in the face but wasn’t asked because he already looked so weak in that part of the discussion. The question that should have been asked was, “Mr. Russell, in some cultures they love their neighbors; in other cultures they eat them. Do you have a personal preference, and if so, what is it?”
-Ravi Zacharias, The End of Reason
