Why is murder wrong?

[Time Commander Bob]

Imagine there is this person (called A) who has brought no harm and will bring no harm to anyone. No-one will benefit from the death of A. Having full knowledge of this, is it therefore wrong to kill A?

Hopefully most people would say yes, it is wrong to kill A, but why we commonly think this to be the case? Is it because we follow an ethical system or code to reach this conclusion or do we simply create such ethical systems to justify the morality that we have? It seems to me that some basic part of morality is somewhat innate to the human brain and such ethical theories are often an afterthought to prop this up.

[Djûn]

Going down a natural-selection route, Humans are social animals and have always congregated in communities. It would be self-destructive to find random killing acceptable and would diminish the chances of survival of the group as a whole, being much smaller than other groups with greater cohesion and number.

Going down a Human Rights route, it is a fundamental right for each person to be able to enjoy their lives autonomously. Bu killing another, you are preventing them from doing what they want to do and as such is completely contrary to their freedoms.

[KingOfTheIsles]

Seeing as murder is wrong by its very definition, that is why it is considered evil.

[vecordia]

Going down a natural-selection route, Humans are social animals and have always congregated in communities. It would be self-destructive to find random killing acceptable and would diminish the chances of survival of the group as a whole, being much smaller than other groups with greater cohesion and number.

Going down a Human Rights route, it is a fundamental right for each person to be able to enjoy their lives autonomously. Bu killing another, you are preventing them from doing what they want to do and as such is completely contrary to their freedoms.

2 obvious and clear reasons why murdering is wrong.

But remember, if you kill someone it's 1 man less to criticize the wrong of killing, if you kill them all - you are infallible

[Serious Spamurai]

2 obvious and clear reasons why murdering is wrong.

But remember, if you kill someone it's 1 man less to criticize the wrong of killing, if you kill them all - you are infallible

Is that a Stalin quote?

[handsome pete]

the other thing that we as arguing entities can consider is that we are merely a sentient aspect of an emr field in our cerebral cortex.

therefore our good and the good of our genetics are not strictly equal.

this would be especially so when we are taken out of our original environment.

evolution has resulted in us, but our present legal societies have gone well beyond our even most recent evolution.

therefore our reasons for not throwing slaves to the lions and having a good laugh must be understood in terms of the interests of the sentience in our cerebral cortex not the propensity of genetic code.

[Imperator Romani]

I guess I am gonna have to go with other people and say that we need others to survive. And we usually don't kill without reason.

[vecordia]

Is that a Stalin quote?

Stalin's was: "One death is a tragedy - one million is a statistic". but it's similar in a way

[Serious Spamurai]

Stalin's was: "One death is a tragedy - one million is a statistic". but it's similar in a way

Or: "Death solves all problems - no man, no problem"

There's pretty much a consistent theme to all of his quotes.

[VALIS]

Dear Bob
Kind Regards

I believe our aversion to killing comes from an evolutionary perspective and our innate desire to see the reproduction and continuation of the human species, as the survival of our race is our most important desire. (subconsciously)

Yours Thankfully
Duke

[Helm]

Because you can't go around and decide who is or isn't worthy of living we have laws to deal with all that. Unless of course it's in self defense or you're in a soldier in a war then it doesn't count as murder, though there are still laws involved in both those cases.

[Khannis]

Unless of course it's in self defense or you're in a soldier in a war then it doesn't count as murder

I absolutely love the hipocrisy innate in "doesn't count" situations

[handsome pete]

not if you didn't write the original statement

[Last Roman]

I absolutely love the hipocrisy innate in "doesn't count" situations

explain...

if someone is trying to kill you, it makes total sense to defend yourself.

[Desperado †]

explain...

if someone is trying to kill you, it makes total sense to defend yourself.

Simply because it's the best (or even only) option for your survival in the situation does not make it moral.

[Djûn]

Simply because it's the best (or even only) option for your survival in the situation does not make it moral.

Nor does it necessarily make it immoral.

[Helm]

Murder is an unlawful killing, if you legally kill someone it isn't murder.

[Djûn]

I absolutely love the hipocrisy innate in "doesn't count" situations

=>

Murder is an unlawful killing, if you legally kill someone it isn't murder.

QFT.

Soldiers may be excused of charges of murder during times of War or National danger. Those who use adequate self-defence are excused from charged of murder. States which permit capital punishment are excused from charges of murder.

[Time Commander Bob]

This thread is not meant to be about the definition of murder or about whether murder is wrong, but why we think that it is wrong. The situation I would like people to address is the one described:

Imagine there is this person (called A) who has brought no harm and will bring no harm to anyone. No-one will benefit from the death of A. Having full knowledge of this, is it therefore wrong to kill A?

Rather than the vague term of "murder".

[Helm]

Murder is wrong because...well it's against law and is a very unpleasant thing to do to someone. I think that about covers it. You could get into the issue of whether capital punishment should be allowed or not but that's a different subject.