Is "black-and-white" thinking wrong?

[Kurisu35712]

Everything you say is 100% correct. ** People who think as Kurisu thinks have been infected with relativity.** Every situation is to be considered on its own and there are no moral absolutes. This could be believed by a secular person, but not by a christian person. Christians believe in objective moral values. No grey areas.

Jesus said: Whoever is not against us is for us" Mark 9: 40
He was talking about spreading his teachings so those who are against Him are also against His teachings. It seems pretty black and white to me.

Turning away from the christian way of thinking brings us to danger. Everyhting could be said to be grey. Everything could be debated. Spoken to any atheists lately? Everything would depend on who’s making the rules at that moment, or who’s rules we accept.

This cannot work. We’re trying it currently in our society and everything is getting out of hand.

Fran

Excuse me? Dare I ask where *any *of my points are in agreement with the strawman argument you’ve associated me with?

 

[frangiuliano115]

Excuse me? Dare I ask where *any *of my points are in agreement with the strawman argument you’ve associated me with?

Hello Kurisu,

That was a long time between my statement and your response. Plus, these quote things, how can I know for sure what I was responding to?

It must have been your post no. 6 where you say that black and white thinkers make terrible leaders.

Also, it seems from that post that you take each situation individually and ascertain the proper course of action.

That would be situational ethics, or subjective morality.

If I misunderstood you, I’m sorry but you’d have to clear up this misunderstanding or it does sound that you believe as I’ve said.

Sometimes it’s just how we speak; have often said this.

Fran

 

[Kurisu35712]

Hello Kurisu,

That was a long time between my statement and your response. Plus, these quote things, how can I know for sure what I was responding to?

It must have been your post no. 6 where you say that black and white thinkers make terrible leaders.

Also, it seems from that post that you take each situation individually and ascertain the proper course of action.

That would be situational ethics, or subjective morality.

If I misunderstood you, I’m sorry but you’d have to clear up this misunderstanding or it does sound that you believe as I’ve said.

Sometimes it’s just how we speak; have often said this.

Fran

Perhaps you would have gained a better understanding of my perspective if you’d based your response to more than just my first post in the thread. I’ve expanded on my points quite a bit since that point.

Also, you definition of situational ethics and subjective morality is incorrect. Even if one were to evaluate each solution to a situation individually, it still isn’t subjective morality, and at no point did I imply that it was. In fact, I literally said “Catholic doctrine is black and white. Things are either objectively true or objectively false regarding what we believe,” in post 23, which you conveniently ignored to make a point of accusing me of being morally subjective, which I absolutely am not.

Catholic doctrine is black and white, as are many other things, as they are required to be by their very nature. But that is not synonymous with the concept of black and white thinking, which is taking that binary standard and applying it to every scenario one comes across. Someone who believes that it is always a sin to murder another human being, which it is, is not a “black and white thinker,” they’re just a morally correct person. A black and white thinker is the one who extrapolates that into the idea that every case of death caused by the actions of another human being, accidental or purposeful, is a mortal sin. As an extreme example, you fasten a statue to a building’s roof. Later that day, the statue falls off the roof and kills someone. You fastened the statue improperly. My perspective is that a person who could be described as a black and white thinker would hold you mortally culpable, regardless of the fact that you did not intentionally cause the person’s death.

 

[frangiuliano115]

Perhaps you would have gained a better understanding of my perspective if you’d based your response to more than just my first post in the thread. I’ve expanded on my points quite a bit since that point.

Also, you definition of situational ethics and subjective morality is incorrect. Even if one were to evaluate each solution to a situation individually, it still isn’t subjective morality, and at no point did I imply that it was. In fact, I literally said “Catholic doctrine is black and white. Things are either objectively true or objectively false regarding what we believe,” in post 23, which you conveniently ignored to make a point of accusing me of being morally subjective, which I absolutely am not.

Catholic doctrine is black and white, as are many other things, as they are required to be by their very nature. But that is not synonymous with the concept of black and white thinking, which is taking that binary standard and applying it to every scenario one comes across. Someone who believes that it is always a sin to murder another human being, which it is, is not a “black and white thinker,” they’re just a morally correct person. A black and white thinker is the one who extrapolates that into the idea that every case of death caused by the actions of another human being, accidental or purposeful, is a mortal sin. As an extreme example, you fasten a statue to a building’s roof. Later that day, the statue falls off the roof and kills someone. You fastened the statue improperly. My perspective is that a person who could be described as a black and white thinker would hold you mortally culpable, regardless of the fact that you did not intentionally cause the person’s death.

First of all this isn’t a courtroom. I’ve made statements on threads that have been misunderstood. No big deal. I already apologized - what more could I do?

Second of all, I don’t agree with your entire second pp. Your example of the statue falling is not an example of black and white thinking. Murder is murder. An accident is not murder. You don’t have to know too much philosophy to know that. You’ve killed someone, but you haven’t murdered him. And I doubt any reasonable black and white thinking person would call your example murder.

I do believe I know what situational ethics and relative morality is. I’ve lived throught the change from objective morality to subjective morality so I doubt I need lessons on that.

So I’m happy you’ve “expanded on your points” since the first post from you. That’s good. Why should you care what I think???

Fran