My example of a 45-year-old man sexually abusing a child is a good illustration of bedrock moral standards. Opebo claims that my disapproval of this is strictly subjective. But he fails to look at the reasons I may disapprove of it. I disapprove of it because a child is most likely unable to defend himself/herself against unwanted advances, and such sexual contact at a very young age is emotionally devastating for the child, and can harm him/her for life.
The fundamental problem is that there are numerous different definitions of morality. Some people define it in terms of harm done to others. Others define it based on religious scripture. Still others use logical forumlations such as Kant's categorical imperative. How can we decide which standard to use to determine what is moral or immoral? The answer: we can't. Everyone will judge morality by different standards; therefore, there is no universal morality.
Consider the case of killing, which I'm sure you agree is a heinous and "immoral" action. Some may see the death penalty as moral. Some may see war as moral. Some may see abortion as moral (strange as such a view may seem). In all these cases, different people have, by applying different standards, arrived at different definitions of morality.
Of course, in the case of child molestation, it is very difficult to imagine a standard under which one would deem such an action moral. But, objectively, there could theoretically be such a standard. Hence, the notion that there is one set of objective morals that governs all of society fails, simply because morals, by their very nature, are subjective judgments.
Certainly: that is your conception of morality. Someone else's conception may be different, and we cannot objectively say that one is inherently superior.
I believe Alasdair MacIntyre would answer to you that just because several people believe different things, that doesn't mean most of them can't be wrong.
or as I would put it, just because there are different sets of beliefs in existance, it doesn't imply that each of them must be equally valid. that task of finding out which is valid is the search for morality.
