Which of these are morally acceptable? (question courtesy Gallup)

[LBJer]

The only ones I didn't mark as being morally acceptable were buying or wearing clothing made of animal fur, medical testing on animals, cloning humans, and the death penalty. 

Regarding animal fur, I make an exception for groups like Eskimos who depend (now or in the past) on animal fur for clothing. 

I think medical testing on animals is only okay if it's absolutely necessary to prevent death or great suffering to humans or other animals. 

I think cloning humans is wrong because I worry it could lead to the embrace of "master race" ideas like those of the Nazis, and attempts to create such a race.

As far as the death penalty, I do think some people do things that are so bad that they deserve to be killed, and that moreover, sometimes it's one hundred percent clear they did them.  In these cases, I think killing them is justifiable or excusable.  In the show NCIS, for example, I didn't have a problem with Leroy Jethrow Gibbs killing the drug dealer who killed his family.  But I think it's wrong to have the death penalty as a legal punishment which anyone could be subject to, because the potential for an innocent person to be executed is simply too great.

Although these four things are the only ones I didn't mark as morally acceptable, I think there are other things on the list that are wrong in certain situations.  I consider gambling and cheating on a spouse/significant other generally acceptable, but not using your family's life savings to gamble, or having unprotected sex with prostitutes and then going home and doing the same with your wife, putting her at grave risk for serious STDs.

[LBJer]

I consider....cheating on a spouse/significant other generally acceptable,

...must I ask why?

I think someone has a right to have sex with whoever they please, provided the person they're having it with is a consenting adult.

[LBJer]

I consider....cheating on a spouse/significant other generally acceptable,

...must I ask why?

I think someone has a right to have sex with whoever they please, provided the person they're having it with is a consenting adult.

A right that is absolute and cannot be impinged upon by prior promises to other people?

Yes.

I think the idea that people automatically have to keep promises they make is childish in the extreme.  Whether a promise must be kept depends on the nature of the promise.  I certainly don't think a promise like this one, that restricts basic human freedom, has to be kept.

What if a couple promised each other they'd stay together for at least 20 years?  What if they promised to never divorce?  Would those promises have to be kept too?  If you're not going to say yes, then I don't see how you can say that breaking a promise not to have sex with someone else is automatically wrong.

[LBJer]

I consider....cheating on a spouse/significant other generally acceptable,

...must I ask why?

I think someone has a right to have sex with whoever they please, provided the person they're having it with is a consenting adult.

A right that is absolute and cannot be impinged upon by prior promises to other people?

Yes.

I think the idea that people automatically have to keep promises they make is childish in the extreme.  Whether a promise must be kept depends on the nature of the promise.  I certainly don't think a promise like this one, that restricts basic human freedom, has to be kept.

What if a couple promised each other they'd stay together for at least 20 years?  What if they promised to never divorce?  Would those promises have to be kept too?  If you're not going to say yes, then I don't see how you can say that breaking a promise not to have sex with someone else is automatically wrong.

This is not about who has a right to do what.  It's about what's morally acceptable.  Can I assume that you find it morally acceptable to cheat on your wife?  If so, I hope she takes everything...

I just explained why I believe infidelity is morally acceptable. 

By the way, I'm not married and I don't intend to ever get married.

[LBJer]

It should be noted that Gallup polls the public in at least four other countries--Canada, the U.K., Germany, and France--about these same issues (although I'm not sure if they do it every year like in the U.S.).  It's very interesting to compare the responses.  In general, the other countries follow the same pattern as the Atlas Forum--more conservative on the death penalty but more liberal on everything else.  

After the U.S., Canada is the most conservative on the whole, followed by Britain and then Germany, with France being the most liberal.  Some of the differences are quite dramatic.  For example, in 2008 62% of Americans said the death penalty was morally acceptable, but only 22% of Germans did.  Conversely, only 7% of Americans said extramarital affairs were morally acceptable (the same as in the 2011 poll), but 35% of Germans (and 47% of the French) said they were.

Not all of the issues were asked about in the 2008 polls that are included in the 2011 poll of Americans Verily cited and the Atlas poll conducted here, but many were.  Also, the Gallup polls I'm referring to measured the attitudes of Muslims in the various countries and compared them with the publics as a whole.  

I haven't posted enough to be allowed to post links, but you can find the polls I'm talking about by googling "Religious Americans, European Muslims: Common Ground," "Common Ground for Europeans and Muslims among them," and "Moral Issues Divide Westerners from Muslims in the West."

[LBJer]

Since Verily tabulated the results of the poll, a few more people have voted.  Here are the latest results (only a little different than before, but the acceptability rating of most things has risen slightly):

Gambling: 59/66, 89%
Same-sex relationships: 55/66, 83%
Sex out of wedlock: 55/66, 83%
Embryonic stem cell research: 52/66, 79%
Having a baby out of wedlock: 51/66, 77%
Divorce: 49/66, 74%
Pornography: 49/66, 74%
Cloning animals: 48/66, 73%
Physician-assisted suicide: 48/66, 73%
Buying/wearing animal fur: 44/66, 67%
Medical Testing on Animals: 43/66, 65%
Abortion: 38/66, 58%
Suicide (not-including physician assisted): 32/66, 48%
Cloning humans: 28/66, 42%
Polygamy: 27/66, 41%
Death Penalty: 22/66, 33%
Cheating: 14/66, 21%

I'll edit these if the results change later.