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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh
From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Where do morals come from
Message-ID: <260@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Dec-84 18:01:18 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.260
Posted: Sat Dec  8 18:01:18 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Dec-84 03:48:40 EST
References: <1700@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Distribution: na
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 22
Summary: 

In article <1700@umcp-cs.UUCP> mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes:
> I have a question for the non-theists out there: where does the
> authority for your moral system come from?
> 
> I'm particularly interested in whether you feel your system allows any
> judgement of the behavior of others.
> 
> Charley Wingate  umcp-cs!mangoe

Glad you asked-- I didn't have much idea until I thought about it.

Authority for a moral system comes from the same place authority for any
other secular position, or status comes from: power.  Not just the power to
inflict, but the passive power of agreement.  Think of it as being the same
sort of question as "where does the authority of the president come from?"

I feel that judgement is unreliable, but an inescapable heuristic.  Without
judgement, a system of any sort is outcompeted or must survive commensally
with a system that does have judgement.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh