Hi, I'm new to this whole forum thing so I hope I'm doing this right.
I've been an atheist for some time but the topic of morality and a solid foundation for it still trips me up (no a magic man living in the clouds doesn't help no matter how majestic his beard is). I know some people choose to define it as wellbeing and thats fine for the most part. But how does an individual's will tie into It? For instance if it's purely wellbeing then strictly speaking smoking would be immoral. Even if you only harm yourself.
Furthermore if you say and individuals will does tie in then to what extent and how does mental state of the individual tie into it? Obviously it would be moral to stop a mentally ill person aattempting self harm, but could addiction not be considered an altered mental state?
Another issue is that wellbeing is also not as concrete as it at first appears. For instance life being preferable to death. It appears to be a solid fact of wellbeing, but what about suffering? Regardless of your view on dignified death you must at least acknowlade that it is a topic of debate and yet this is a fundamental question on wellbeing.
The point being that the nuances seem to be far greater than having one objective rule that can be applied to any and all situations.
Bringing me to my last point on empathy, could you not use empathy as a basis for mortality? Could empathy as a common evolutionary trait not be objective? I feel like this also has its own host of problems which is why this is a topic I struggle with. Im hoping someone has some enlightening thoughts on this and if you read all this, thanks :)