Ethics

What are some of the barriers to providing equal opportunity to every one, within academia? Seeing a lot of ignorant and entitled posting lately, which doesn't even make a point to address this. It's a shame really, a lot of discouraging and disparaging comments being made about people, who through no fault of their own, simply are not offered the sort of education their disparagers have allegedly had and have no means of getting it.

today the atty general of New York state announced fraud charges of millions of dollars to 4 central figures including La Pierre, over many years of illegalities, and a charge to dissolve the organization altogether.

I personally don't see what's so wrong with animal testing.

The story: Rowling's response: \ https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1207646162813100033 Comments?

I think like many other ethical questions, this question is not as simple as it sounds. Firistly, to declare my position, I don't believe anything is objectively right or wrong. The ethics, to me, come from our situation in society, and our evolution as social mammals. But in light of the human condition, is torture ever right? (and religion doesn't really have an answer, George Bush and the Spanish Inquisition come to mind) Imagine an innocent toddler has been abducted by a couple of pedophiles, and you have one in captivity, and he knows where the other is keeping the child, but he won't tell. Forgetting the legal and practical issues, if you had…

do you believe the death penalty is wrong and should not be done? I do and I thought everyone I know agrees. I think its wrong for a couple reasons, one we don't know what kind of a punishment we are giving these criminals and another is we cant undo it. we dont know what kind of punishment these people are getting because we dont know enough about the after life. there was a study where people partially died and they all reported seeing a white light but that's all we know do far about it, they can either be getting a worse punishment in the afterlife they can be stabbed with swords for a while or they can go into another world and kill more people and get away with it…

I recently got into a debate with someone over when life begins. I suppose this question has no real answer, only our own opinions. So, whats yours? When does life begin? I'm not talking about life as in 'bacteria are alive'. When does a ball of cells become a human life, something we value higher than any other life on this planet?

When I was about 12 years old, I was visiting my Grandmother and watching some awards show on TV. She was making dinner. As I watched the TV, a man walked toward the camera with a big smile on his face and two incredibly beautiful, and tall, women on his arms. Innocently, I asked my Grandmother, "Do you think they are his daughters, or his granddaughters?" She looked up and said, "No. They are his escorts." At my blank look, she explained, "His dates." "Eeww", I said, "Why would those women want to date a wrinkled up, bald-headed, old man?" Grandma smiled and said, "Beautiful women will buzz around powerful men like flies on shit. It has always been that way. It will alwa…

I'm doing a survey on public opinion on Abortion the specific question is: For those persons that disagree with abortion would you change your mind based upon the following situation question: Can you consider rape victims abortions justifiable based upon lack of consented intent to become pregnant? Thanks for any responses I get please state whether your male or female by typing (m) or (f) next to your response and if I'm lucky enough your age too thanks a million. I hope to get at least 100 responses through online responses and in person responses. Teri

One of the reasons why drugs are illegal and in my opinion the main reason is that they are a threat to society and cause unethical behavior of addicts or people using drugs occasionally, such as car accidents, home abuse, theft for drug funding, for drugs like meth, you may be bolder to rape or kill someone, upbringing disorders of children when parents are addicted, giving birth to handicapped children while the mother is pregnant and taking drugs or taking drugs before pregnancy etc. maybe I'm stupid but I really can't understand what makes alcohol less harmful to society than the rest of drugs, here in Poland it is very common alcohol using, its like culture if …

What do you think about Eugenics? I personally think it would drastically change the world for the better. By Eugenics I mean sterilizing everyone with an IQ below 100, and forcibly aborting any fetus which will be born with a genetic deformity, retardation, etc. Also encouraging geniuses to procreate by giving them tax breaks and benefits for each child they produce. Can you imagine a world where geniuses are a dime a dozen? Classrooms full of gifted children, no more government funds wasted on special ed classrooms, all this we can achieve. We just have to set aside pointless emotions and see the bigger picture. It might be difficult to accept forc…

that they are not doing the same as meat eaters and killing a life? Who says the corn wants to be cultivated in a square field? Then reaped to be cut down and eaten? Why can't its seed be left to create more corn? Who says the the carrot wants its food reserve to be traken from it for its leaves to wither and die? Yes there are cruel means of killing animals used and they SHOULDN'T torture them to kill them or house them in bad conditions.....but also plants are living things too and when you cut them they bleed-maybe not blood but their equivalent of a circulatory system fluid. So in the end who really cares more about nature and loves plants/animals? ne…

To avoid further derailing a thread in the politics forum, I felt this thread should be split. To begin, let me post a definition of blastocyst (from WordNet): The basic question is: does a blastocyst meet the criteria of a human being? The best way to argue this point, I believe, is to enumerate the core criteria which comprise a human being, then use that to argue the point. Some things to keep in mind are various things which would comprise parts of a human being but not human beings themselves. An example would be a biopsy. Unless your argument is that a biopsy is a human being, your criteria should no be so vague as to be unable to distinguish th…

And if not why not? Most people agree that actions which harm others are wrong, but many actions are illegal which do not harm anyone and are known as victimless crimes. How can society justify criminalizing having sex with kids if it doesn't hurt anyone? Many assume that a child will be 'traumatized' by having sex with an adult, however this is not true. Firstly ages of consent vary across the world (from 13 in Spain to 18 in California) - proof that there is no consensus on what the minimally acceptable age at which a person can engage in sex is. Secondly much of the 'trauma' (guilt, shame, victimization) felt by 'victims' is in fact caused by society, s…

I'm very supportive of woman's rights, and I'm okay with birth control. I do not think that abortion is a valid means of birth control. People justify abortion by saying fetuses aren't human. Well, Hitler justified the killing of millions of innocent people by calling them less than human. What makes abortion better than that? I'm not saying girls can't be interested in chemistry. Far from it. Is making charcoal, in your opinion, a post a man or a woman would most likely have started? I couldn't tell you how a girl talks, unless it's one of the younger generation that says "like" after every other word. But I can definitely tell. I knew hyper was a girl, before someone to…

Is it possible that homophobia - fear of homosexuality - is something that is inborn? If so via natural selection? Among our remote ancestors, did homophobes survive better?

The concept may not be new, but I recently heard this argument phrased in a way that really resonated with me. Many people, including many religious people, view morality as a vertical scale, with their deity or moral mentor at the top, those they disagree with below them, and themselves and everyone else ranked somewhere between. It's a hierarchy from which they can strive to do better, and recognize when they do worse. But it's also a perspective of subjective judgement, and I think it's responsible for much of the inequality in our societies. Horizontal morality asks us to look around at each other from a side-by-side perspective, and recognize that nobody is inhe…

I'm interested in how you guys see this. Personally I think its wrong(go figure) and I can't understand how people feel it is right, ethical, or why it should even be legal.

If two people are married and have children, is it ethical for them to have sex with each other in front of your their kids? And, what if the kids are too young to understand what sex is? What do you think as an SFN forum member? What's the scientific/atheistic viewpoint regarding this matter?

I was pondering the essence of ethics relating to cows being breed for meat, and came upon a viewpoint which makes it ethically right (as far as I can see anyway). The problem is that the idea of killing cows is obviously ethically wrong at the first glance. However as I thought about it more deeply I thought that if we did not breed these cows, than that they possibly would never have lived. And isn't Living and dying young better than not living at all? Of course the major points of relevance would be: killing age, natural death age (and hence how much of their life are we cutting short), how they are killed and if we could breed them for milk instead but would their be…

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1089558/Shamima-Begum-ISIS-Islamic-State-pregnant-Shamima-Begum-UK-citizenship-revoked Seems harsh.

What are your thoughts on Animal Testing? I recently visited http://www.stopanimaltests.com and got a very graphic education on the subject. I always knew that I didn't vouch for animal testing but this has REALLY opened my eyes. Also, check out http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com This is unbelievable. Are there any scientists part of this community that are involved in any way with animal cruelty / testing? This is disgusting, I have no idea how people can do such things. Not only that, the gov't supplies hundreds of millions of dollars annually to have animals slaughtered and abused. 115 million animals (not counting rats,mice, and birds because they are not covered…

Do you think someone can be spiritual even if they pay someone to kill an animal so they can eat meat? What if that person is a millionaire or billionaire and donating to charities all over the world yet still support the suffering of people, animals, and the environment by eating meat? Let's say that a rich person donates to charities that help with climate change and world hunger. Is this person using his/her money to relieve the symptoms but not necessarily getting to the root of the problem? What do you all think?

Is Apple ethically correct to take up this stance or is the government's need more important?

How many lives would be saved?