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bestest_name_ever t1_ivf90uh wrote

Reply to comment by stoppedcaring0 in Michael Shermer argues that science can determine many of our moral values. Morality is aimed at protecting certain human desires, like avoidance of harm (e.g. torture, slavery). Science helps us determine what these desires are and how to best achieve them. by Ma3Ke4Li3

> I don't necessarily think that the answer people give to a question is correlated with the factual answer to that question, but I do think there may be value in looking for those questions for which consistent answer profiles are given across human populations. In other words: killing is thought of as a taboo basically everywhere you go, which implies that there may be some scientific underpinning to that taboo. Eating pork or beef is thought of as very taboo to some, but very normal to others, implying that the taboo is less scientific than particular.

Majority opinion doesn't really seem to be relevant if you just look at history. What's the majority of people going to say about whether the sun orbits earth or indeed earth is flat, if you ask at various points in history? There is no easily visible correlation between the truth of an opinion and whether or not it's the majority opinion, nor the size of the majority holding it.

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