We Catholics have this concept in sin that I'll call "required knowledge". If you do not know that what you're doing is evil, it is not considered a sin until you learn that it is evil. Gacy knew that what he was doing was evil (I assume), while the people practicing slavery did not know that what they were doing was evil, assuming that it is evil. So, at the time, in a way, it less not okay, since they did not know that it is not okay.
It all has to do with what amount of the truth a certain person has been suggested of at any given time. Assuming that the truth is that slavery is immoral, and that many people back then never even had it suggested to them that slavery is immoral, then their acts were less immoral. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't make their actions any less evil, but it makes their intentions less evil, making the act of them holding slaves less evil (an act is made up of action and intention). It would bring a sin (intentional rejection of truth) down to a fault (unintentional rejection of truth).
About the cursing, I personally just far prefer using more formal words to pointlessly informal words like curses.
Well we atheists have a concept in morality. I'll call it, "Something is terribly wrong with you if you can't intuitively _feel_ what is right and wrong."
The world is fallen; Satan clouds people's senses of morality, attempting to turn them against the good truth of God, and towards evil things of this world, of which slavery could be considered one. The non-Christians are the ones who cannot feel the true good, as they have been tempted so much by Satan that they reject the truth of God, which is what is good. You say that you would be able to tell that slavery was evil those hundreds of years ago, but I seriously doubt that you would.
I find it highly disturbing that you feel that way. Wouldn't _you_ be able to tell? If not, that's probably a big part of why having something else inform you is so appealing to you.
I sincerely doubt anyone besides full-on sociopaths didn't know what they were doing was shitty _unless_ they felt the slaves somehow _deserved_ it. Even in that scenario they're aware a negative thing is being inflicted upon them.
When something is the social norm, people have a hard time telling whether or not it is evil. How else would things like homosexuality or transgenderism get so accepted by people if that were not the case? Slavery was the same way; people were told that it was not evil by most people, so they thought it was not evil. I don't know if I would be able to tell, since I did not live in an era of slavery. Keep in mind that there is also a difference between a slave owner and a person with no slaves.
Slave owners knew that their abuse of humans was evil, but they wouldn't tell anyone. They wanted to keep up the facade that slaves were being treated well, and were living acceptable lives. If you were told that all that slavery is is effectively just people giving other people room and board in exchange for work, would you believe it to be evil? I doubt it.
The slavers were the only ones with the knowledge of the fact that what they were doing was evil, but, since we live in a fallen world, they did not care.
why are you atheist? why are you theist?
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We Catholics have this concept in sin that I'll call "required knowledge". If you do not know that what you're doing is evil, it is not considered a sin until you learn that it is evil. Gacy knew that what he was doing was evil (I assume), while the people practicing slavery did not know that what they were doing was evil, assuming that it is evil. So, at the time, in a way, it less not okay, since they did not know that it is not okay.
It all has to do with what amount of the truth a certain person has been suggested of at any given time. Assuming that the truth is that slavery is immoral, and that many people back then never even had it suggested to them that slavery is immoral, then their acts were less immoral. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't make their actions any less evil, but it makes their intentions less evil, making the act of them holding slaves less evil (an act is made up of action and intention). It would bring a sin (intentional rejection of truth) down to a fault (unintentional rejection of truth).
About the cursing, I personally just far prefer using more formal words to pointlessly informal words like curses.
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S0UNDS_WEIRD
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Well we atheists have a concept in morality. I'll call it, "Something is terribly wrong with you if you can't intuitively _feel_ what is right and wrong."
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Clunk42
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The world is fallen; Satan clouds people's senses of morality, attempting to turn them against the good truth of God, and towards evil things of this world, of which slavery could be considered one. The non-Christians are the ones who cannot feel the true good, as they have been tempted so much by Satan that they reject the truth of God, which is what is good. You say that you would be able to tell that slavery was evil those hundreds of years ago, but I seriously doubt that you would.
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S0UNDS_WEIRD
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I find it highly disturbing that you feel that way. Wouldn't _you_ be able to tell? If not, that's probably a big part of why having something else inform you is so appealing to you.
I sincerely doubt anyone besides full-on sociopaths didn't know what they were doing was shitty _unless_ they felt the slaves somehow _deserved_ it. Even in that scenario they're aware a negative thing is being inflicted upon them.
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Clunk42
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When something is the social norm, people have a hard time telling whether or not it is evil. How else would things like homosexuality or transgenderism get so accepted by people if that were not the case? Slavery was the same way; people were told that it was not evil by most people, so they thought it was not evil. I don't know if I would be able to tell, since I did not live in an era of slavery. Keep in mind that there is also a difference between a slave owner and a person with no slaves.
Slave owners knew that their abuse of humans was evil, but they wouldn't tell anyone. They wanted to keep up the facade that slaves were being treated well, and were living acceptable lives. If you were told that all that slavery is is effectively just people giving other people room and board in exchange for work, would you believe it to be evil? I doubt it.
The slavers were the only ones with the knowledge of the fact that what they were doing was evil, but, since we live in a fallen world, they did not care.
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S0UNDS_WEIRD
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The slavers are who I'm talking about.
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Clunk42
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Well then, what are we arguing about? Evil people will be evil. Most people were not slavers.