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Replying to BeHereNow]
First part: Can any moral or religious document be objective in the values it presents? Please explain.
What do you mean by religious document? Is it a religious document to say same sex relationships are wrong? Is it a religious document to state the immorality of abortion?
If those are the types of things you mean. I would argue that yes they can be objective, but I would also argue they can be objective because they aren’t only religious documents. Those things are not wrong because the Church says they are wrong, rather the Church must declare them wrong because they are wrong. They are objectively immoral. Again, not because the Bible says they are, rather because man in his reason, being an observer of life, acknowledging the way the world works and understanding man’s relationship with this world, can conclude the above behaviors are not right/good/in man’s best interest. This reasoning is based on science, logic, biology, facts etc. IOW, on externals. It is not based on feelings, emotions, rationalizations, etc.
Part two (optional): If you answered yes, you may chose any particular document and defend it as being objective.
I could go into great detail about either of the behaviors/actions mentioned above and show how man can determine the wrongness of it, but I think both the topics I mentioned above have been debated ad nauseam and doubt anyone wants to go down those roads again.
Therefore, I will take something a little more innocent like bulimia. Yes, bulimia. Is there anyone here who thinks bulimia is right or good? I think most people would agree that the act of purposely eating large quantities of food and then purposely making oneself vomit so as not to have to deal with the consequences (calories) of eating said food is wrong. Or as most would like to refer to it – disordered. The person wants the pleasure of eating while forgoing the natural consequences that comes with eating. It simply isn’t the proper order of how things are supposed to work. We can all know how the body is supposed to work by simply observing how it does work. What makes things right or wrong is often if something is being used correctly or for its intended purpose. Most can recognize bulimia is misuse of the body. I think it is fair to say knowing what we know about man, the way the body works, the way the world works, a things form and function and purpose we can conclude bulimia is a disordered act and not in man’s best interest. In fact, most of us think this so much that we offer help and support to anyone who suffers from bulimia. We do not think the bulimic is a bad person, however we do agree their behavior is wrong and therefore not right or good. The compassionate thing to do would be to get help for the bulimic because the bulimic will never reach peace and true human fulfillment while being a slave to such a behavior.
All men can know what is right/good vs. bad/wrong. But it does require us to be honest and acknowledge the natural laws of the world we live in. Making these acknowledgments is far from subjective – and that’s the point. That we all know instantly that something like bulimia is not the proper order shows determining the rightness or wrongness of something is not arbitrary. It is objective and something all men can know.