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judge the past by today's standards
(quokk.au)
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this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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I see this from the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist. Our egoism and altruism are coded in our DNA and in constant conflict. Moral rules are created to try to resolve this. So you’re right, on a universal level there is no right or wrong; but for primates there obviously is: right makes us feel good, wrong makes us feel bad.
So is it morally right for a murderer to do what he does because it makes him feel good?
Obviously not. The murderer may get a kick out of killing people ( although many murderers will deep down inside NOT feel good about it, they live in conflict with themselves). The societies witnessing the murder will be shocked (and this applies to any society, at any time, from the early hominids to nazi Germany) because deep down inside our “altruistic genetic make up” tells us murder is despicable. (Society will punish the murderer; either with a prison sentence or a death sentence. A death sentence is however also murder, and then a moral discourse starts: society will struggle to find the balance between our (genetically programmed) levels of altruism/ egoism).