by chymos » June 17th, 2005, 10:35 am
I would define an immoral act as any act, the performance of which, would cause you, (the performer of the act), personally, to feel guilt about it afterward. Yes, I realize it seems a rather open-ended definition, however, it seems to fit the definition of moral that has apparently been agreed upon.
Now, morals are a very subjective and individual thing, unique to each individual. It was said that a society defines what's considered "moral".....this is not quite entirely true. The individuals within the society define what that society considers moral, this by virtue of what the majority of the individuals personally feel is moral.
So.....if you've done anything on this site that you felt guilty about later, then you've done something immoral :)
Guilt is a bad thing. Manipulate a person into feeling guilt over something and you've gained a measure of control over them (this is a bad form of control, such as cults use. Not to start any flame wars or anything, but the concept of guilt is one the Catholic church has been exploiting since its inception.)
Anyway, enough of that 8)
I myself have done nothing that has caused me to experience guilt, therefore I've done nothing immoral.
OTOH, the only regrets I have (a totally different subject, but I feel like mentioning this anyway) are the things I wanted to do but didn't for whatever reason *other* than those acts that would induce feelings of guilt on my part.
In the sense I've described, your personal morals *do* form the ruler that your conscience operates with.
SO......who here has a guilty conscience? :D