Wright and wrong - my final statement

What you've said makes perfect sense to me: 1) you believe some things are wrong, and 2) what leads you to this belief is not arbitrary, pulled out of thin air, or invented for the sake of your own convenience, but is based on some sort of standard or standards.

Good. This is important, as it clears up a major and frequent misunderstanding about how someone can be a materialist atheist like me and still be moral. I am generalising from my own experience, but I would say that we don't seek out some universal perfect standard for our morality, as we don't believe that such 'universals' exist, but neither are our standards arbitrary, or purely for convenience. We try (if we are good people - although this may sound circular) to feel our way through this as best we can, and build up our own moral system (although in discussion with others) that can be a firm foundation for the way we think and act. We stick with this moral system, although if we find our feelings changing, or discussion with others over a period of time can convince us we have been mistaken, we are willing to change our moral systems, although carefully and slowly.

Steve, this is pretty much the same process a Christian uses to answer questions of morality.

I am certain it is, but then I would say that, because it is my belief that religious moral systems are reflections of the way our minds work, rather than through access to some transcendental standards. I believe that almost everyone who has a moral sense uses the same process.

I would like to point out that you are the first Christian I have had a coherent discussion about this with.

Listen, my "critical battery level" warning for my laptop is beeping at me to recharge, so I need to wrap this up.

Do you have any questions for me?

No, I think this has gone very well so far, and I am happy to move on.

(If you know a way to delete duplicated posts, as the forum software crashed, could you let me know?)