Iceland looks to ban internet porn

[John Galt]

[uebermann]

Well, I can say that I am firmly not of the belief that thinking of an action equals the action. Simply lusting after someone, in my view, isn't anything close to cheating and is actually normal behavior.

Just like how when I sit at work and think about doing work, its not the same as me actually doing work. I can dream up code all day but until I type it out, its nothing but a thought and not an action.

[PoS]

[Gnostic]

[Gnostic]

[exploited]

I have attacked others dozens of times, cheated hundreds, maimed people for no good reason, and smoked dozens of doobies while stuck in traffic jams.

And yet I have done none of these things because I exercised free will and decided not to, because I can distinguish between what pops into my head and what I really want.

You have to be basically insane to argue that thinking about these things has anywhere the same moral implications as doing them. Human beings are more irrational than not, and self-control is something to be celebrated, not condemned.

[The Dharma Bum]

Well since thought is literally an electrical current it is a physical action, but not in the way you are thinking it is, Gnostic. Thoughts don't create a physical effect in some type of "moral ether" which we all exist in. For example telekinesis does not exist. Ergo, if you think someone's wife is hot it is not the same as screwing them.

Morality is a culturally ascribed designation. There's no extant universal morality. Of course we could create one, that would be a possibility, but we need a better basis than the supernatural from which to present it. Modern people are no longer going to accept that kind of thinking. It's is rapidly becoming obsolete. Moral absolutism had it's utility in explaining things in the past but those days are over. Let's move on.

I suggest the principle of equity as a basis for society. Do you as an individual want to be a part of society where you get a equitable share in the society?

[The Dharma Bum]

Does this or that action produce an equitable consequence? That's the question we should be asking ourselves.

[uebermann]

[Dennis]