An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity - always yours

166 THINKING ABOUT VALUES
will be confused and will suffer from psychological problems. If this is factually
correct, it might be an argument against gay adoption. But it turns
out that this popular assumption is mistaken. Children raised by gay couples
seem just as happy and well adjusted compared to those who grow up
in heterosexual families. 3
Avoid slippery-slope arguments. Some people like to argue that if something
is allowed (or prohibited), it would open a floodgate and more extreme
things will also have to be allowed (or prohibited), which are not acceptable.
Thus people argue that if homosexual marriage is allowed, then we should
also let people marry their pets or their own children. Or sometimes people
criticize laws that require drivers and passengers to wear seat belts. They say
it leads to a nanny state where the government would start requiring people
to do all sorts of things, like eating healthy food, exercising, and brushing
their teeth. These slippery-slope arguments would be convincing only if it
were indeed true that one thing inevitably leads to another, but that is often
not the case. We might have to draw an arbitrary line at some point, but it
does not mean that no line can be drawn.
Avoid double standards. It is easier to find fault with other people than to
recognize our own mistakes. We often impose high moral standards on others
but not on ourselves. Research suggests that power and authority can
make people more hypocritical. Avoiding a double standard is important
for maintaining objectivity and healthy relationships. Many religious traditions
and ethical theories include some version of the Golden Rule—do
to others what you would like to be done to you. Following this rule too
strictly can of course be problematic. I might want to eat durian every day,
but imposing the same treatment on others might amount to torture! But
the general idea behind the principle is that morality involves reciprocity,
fairness and consideration of other people's perspectives.
18.7 FOUR TYPES OF MORAL ARGUMENTS
Thinking about morality is hard and disagreement is common. So it is important
to give reasons for our moral beliefs. Even when disagreements cannot be
resolved, we can at least understand each other better. In the following sections,
we look at four main types of arguments that can be used to justify a moral belief.
18.7.1 Arguments based on moral principle
A moral principle is a general rule about some aspects of morality, such as when it
is morally right (or wrong) to do something—for example, killing innocent people
3 A recent study (Gartrell and Bos, 2010) even suggests that teenagers of lesbian parents in the United
States have fewer behavioral problems!