Which is morally worse? Cheating or racism?

[Wootah]

Let's decide morality by a poll.

By cheating I mean sexually in a relationship.

[Divine Insight]

I approach these types of questions from a purely secular view. In fact, I feel that this is how these types of questions should be addressed whether we believe in a God or not.

For me it's not a question of "morality". Morality is a religious judgment. I see absolutely no reason to judge anyone on their "morality".

For humanity and societies questions of "right or wrong" behavior within a society should be based entirely on the damage it does to the society itself. The idea is to protect the citizens of the society from harm or abuse.

So in the cases you have chosen to focus in on (i.e. cheating versus racism) we can ask what the damage is, and who is being damaged.

In the case of cheating we have two aspects of potential damage. The first is the internal damage (i.e. the damage being done within the covenant of the original relationship). Cheating in a relation necessarily includes lying unless it's being done openly which can also be done, but is far less likely to be the case. Within the relationship the covenant has been broken. Not only has one spouse been lied to, and vows been broken, but there is also the additional danger that the cheating spouse could bring home a disease that had been acquired during the act of cheating.

So in the case of cheating there is internal damage to the covenant of marriage vows along with the potential health risks. There is also the potential danger to the lives and emotional health of any children involved in this marriage, especially if the cheating ultimately leads to a troubled or broken marriage.

Cheating also has the potential for external damage (i.e. damage to the people the cheating spouse is having affairs with). Are the people who are having sex with the cheating spouse aware of the situation? Or are they too being lied to and placed in a situation that they aren't even aware they are in? After all if the cheating spouse is having affairs with other people who believe the cheating spouse to be single and eligible for a deeper relationship, then there is fraud on that side of things as well.

So cheating can create a lot of destruction within a society. Having said this, cheating (in a single relationship) is typically limited to a small number of people within the society. Typically limited to only causing damage to the family member of the cheater, and potentially a few external victims as well.

Still, it's clearly not "Good".

Now let's take a look at racism.

Racism has a far wider potential for damage. Clearly the least damaging form of racism is when some individual is racists but doesn't really do much about it other than have a low opinion of people of other races. That's already damaging to society on a social level, but typically that type of racism is the least damaging.

Racism becomes far more damaging if the racist is active in their racism and potentially inciting other people to also become racists, and/or inciting violence toward a specific race. This can even take the form of political activism where the racists are attempting to inflict "damage" on people of other races via legislation. In these cases the "racist" may even believe they are doing the "right" thing when in fact they are not.

Clearly racism can also cause much damage within a society when the racists are in a position of authority. We are all aware of how police departments can unfairly target or harass people of a specific race. Sometimes this is done department-wide, other times it's done by individual police officers. But clearly racism in a position of authority can be quite harmful to society as a whole causing damage to large numbers of citizens.

Then there is also racism in the business world. If a person who has authority to hire workers is a racist this can have a damaging affect on many citizens of the race being oppressed.

So racism can ultimately cause far more damage than cheating in terms of a single racist causing harm to more people. Racism is also far easier to "incite". A cheater isn't likely to encourage other people to cheat, but a racist who is in a position of authority can easily encourage other people to support racist agendas.

So from a social perspective racism as the potential for far greater damage.

Does that makes it "more wrong" than cheating? I don't think so. Wrong is wrong.

From a moral perspective they are both "wrong". To say that one is more wrong than the other would be misleading. But one can certainly cause more damage to more people than the other.

So from my perspective to ask which is "morally worse" is basically a meaningless question.

It's like asking, "Which is morally worse; beating someone to death, or just beating them to within an inch of their life?"

IMHO, they are both morally wrong. The only difference is that beating a person to death obviously results in the "Greater Damage". Does this then make it "morally worse"?

If so, the the degree of immorality of something would be proportional to the degree of damage inflicted.

If that's the case, then racism would be more 'morally wrong' than cheating simply because it has the potential to cause greater damage.

[Wootah]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

Whilst the poll isn't getting much traction i suspect most people will vote for racism. Thanks for your reasons.

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 2 by Divine Insight]

Whilst the poll isn't getting much traction i suspect most people will vote for racism. Thanks for your reasons.

Probably because it clearly has the potential to do more damage to more people. But is the amount of damage an act or behavior causes a reason to claim that it "morally worse" than some other behavior?

It seems to me that "morality" is itself basically a judgement being made upon the person who is conducting the act. And in that case intent is clearly a far greater factor than the amount of damage that might be caused.

For example, if we kill someone by accident that is not considered to be an "immoral" act at all because there was no intent to cause the outcome. However, if the intent was to kill, then this would clearly be "murder" which is by definition an immoral killing.

So we see that typically morality has far more to do with intent than actions or behaviors.

If that's the case then whether cheating or being a racist is "morally worse" would depend on which is more intentional.

~~~~~

Just to clarify, I have viewed "morality" in this way for many years now. Morality is basically a judgement made against someone that implies they had intentionally done something wrong. And because of this it then would be meaningless to associate a level of "morality" with pure actions or behaviors devoid of intent. Morality is a judgment associated with intent.

Behaviors are just behaviors and may or may not be moral or immoral depending upon the intent.

In fact, we see this in terms of killing. If a civilian intentionally murders someone that's clearly an immoral act. But if a police officer kills a criminal or a solider kills an enemy in the "Line of Duty" it's not considered to be immoral at all. In fact, they might even be held up as a hero for having killed someone.

So actions alone are neither moral nor immoral. Only intent makes something moral or immoral.

Clearly we can then see that morality isn't about "right or wrong". Morality is basically all about intent. This is why I always say that morality is not an absolute because what might be moral for one person may not be moral for someone else. Their intent is what makes their action moral or immoral.

[imhereforyou]

Let's decide morality by a poll.

By cheating I mean sexually in a relationship.

I voted for cheating because that's something that's transparent and known - if you're cheating you know you're cheating.
Racism these days is so convoluted and fluid - even dependent on geographical boundaries and social constructs.

Sometimes facts (or apparent facts) can be considered as racists - eventually but not necessarily originally.

In other words, cheating seems much more 'black and white' than does racism from my stand point and thus more morally 'bad'.