Morality and Human Rights

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No.

I have met people in my life who think crime is fine. They never gave it a second thought.

I gave a ride to a group of friends one day. There was a girl I did not know. When I got home, items that were in the pocket of my jacket were missing. She was the only stranger in the car. Never acted guilty for a second. Never thought twice about stealing from someone giving her a ride.

There are lots of people like that in the world.

What does it mean to say a person has a right if he is not capable of exercising it?

That's what I don't get about the concept of objective rights. If two people disagree about whether a certain right exists, how could we determine which one is correct? Apparently these rights don't have to have any effect in the real world, which makes me wonder what utility the concept has.

Jeremy

You are misunderstanding me. People's innate moral senses may be very different from each other. Maybe their innate moral sense tells them that stealing is fine. Or maybe they feel its a necessary evil to survive... but it doesn't sound like thats whats going on.

Not that thats excusing them or that you should have anything more to do with them. I'm just saying that everyone has an innate moral sense that they need to follow to feel fully expressed, and that as long as your expression of your moral sensibilities isn't hurting anyone, you shouldn't let anyone else dictate what is right or wrong to you.

Crime, just by itself, without elaborating on what that crime IS, is fine. It depends what that crime IS whether its fine or not.

The law, and the state, do NOT dictate morality.