Ethical Pluralism
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- Type: Constructed Religion; Pantheistic
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
Religious people are often accused of being inflexible dogmatists and non-religious people are accused of being amoral relativisits. If you are either religious or irreligious, you know these labels don't apply to you, but you still feel tempted to apply them to those on the other side of the fence. I'm sure you can think of a million good things done by people on your side and a million horrible things done by people on the other side. And if you're like most people, you're certain that the other side is closed-minded and that if they just stopped and thought about your side for one second they would realize you're right.
Welcome to the human race. Elitism is as old as humanity itself, and it does not die easily. Even the most extreme relativists believe their way of thinking is superior to all others.
So lets put theism on the back burner for a moment (whether it be atheism, monotheism, polytheism, and so forth). And develop a system of practical ethics, that can stand up to reason, and remain independent of supernatural beings, non-falsifiable beliefs, and theology in general.
[edit] Main Teachings
- All teachings are forever tentative, contingent upon the introduction of superior information, logic and reasoning.
- Unlike the Wikipedia, we will not restrict ourselves to a neutral point of view. While an ethic stands, we will stand for it.
- We will only stand for ethics that can stand up to reason. If an ethic cannot withstand the test of time and reasoned debate, we will feel no obligation to cling to it. - Just because we can't agree on everything doesn't mean we shouldn't agree on anything.
- In general, helping people is ethical and harming people is unethical.
[edit] Proposing a New Teaching
- Every new teaching must be proposed in the 'proposed teachings' section. From there, we will debate its pros and cons and modify it until it is acceptable to practically everyone. At that point, any individual may place it under the 'main teachings' heading, and if it is acceptable to nearly everyone it will stay there. If not, then any individual is free to move it back to the proposed teachings section.
- Every new ethic proposed must be justified with reason and logic. This way, ethics from all traditions, systems and philosophies will be given equal consideration. Christian fundamentalists and secular humanists will not have their ideas rejected out of hand, but their ideas must stand up in a reasoned debate.
- All justifications for ethics must make sense to people of most backgrounds. For example, you cannot argue that an action is wrong because it is commanded by a monotheistic being, but you can argue that it is wrong because it is harmful to a society (although, of course, you will have to explain the mechanism by which it harms society).
[edit] Proposed Teachings
- People should have the right to do whatever they want, as long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others or harm them in any way. As the expression goes, "my right to swing my fist ends where your face begins."
Arguments in favor: This teaching is rather basic, but we must start somewhere. Some have argued that it is obvious to everyone, but the point of this sytem is to organize a list of ethics everyone can agree on.
Arguments against: It is too obvious, and therefore meaningless.
