Reply #39: Who gets to set the rules?

[Orrex]

We have no way to identify absolute "good," and even if we think we know what absolute "good" is, we have no way to determine whether your perception is correct. If anyone knows of a way to identify with certainty what absolute "good" really is, then I would love to hear it. But I am not convinced by appeals to an "inner voice," "the writing on your heart," "self-evident goodness," or the alleged testimony of some supernatural force or entity.

All that you can say with relative certainty is that you perceive Behavior X to be entirely inconsistent with your own notion of morality.

So if you declare that some other culture's practices are immoral, you are indeed acting with ethnocentrism, but it's an entirely human tendency.

Someone has posted the view that might does not make right. That's true, but not for the reason that the poster probably thinks. Might does not make right because "right" is not a constant or an absolute. Instead, "might" can simply put into effect the "mighty" person's notion of what is right.