right and wrong are objective truths

Lets begin by being clear about what is meant by saying right and wrong are objective. Objective in this sense means that right and wrong exist outside of ourselves. In other words right is right because there truly is a standard of behavior that exists whether or not a person believes that standard to be right. It is the same for everyone at all times and in all places. My argument is that moral truths are similar to mathematical truths or natural laws like gravity. They are real and they provide a standard of behavior that we are obligated to follow.1: The Case from Argument: (for a fuller and frankly far superior example of this argument see Chapter 1 of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis) Almost all people argue about what is right and wrong. When someone cuts in line, or someone says something behind someone's back, or someone lies to someone, the injured party is likely to "call the person out" for his behavior. When the injured party does so, the person who has committed the act is likely to do one of two things: apologize, or make an excuse. By apologizing, the person is admitting that there is a standard of behavior which he has fallen short of upholding. By making an excuse, the person is admitting there is a standard of behavior, but that he is excused from following it in this instance because of some factor which justifies his behavior. He may say that he said something behind your back, but the person to whom he was speaking misunderstood what he meant, and of course, he never intended to injure your feelings. For the sake of space I will not provide a laundry list of the excuses people make. You and I know them quite well as people have made them to us our entire lives, and at least I have made them to others for the entirety of my life. The point is that there is no reason to apologize or to make excuses, nor even to "call someone out" on his behavior unless both people believe there to be some shared standard which should guide our behavior. You will never (except perhaps in the case of the sociopath or apparently some philosophers) hear someone say "I care not for your standard of behavior. My actions are guided by my subjective ideas about what is right and wrong. You have no more right to accuse me of doing wrong than to say that I am wrong because I do not care for the taste of red onions. "In fact all the evidence I have seen points to the fact that people naturally seem to understand that there are standards and, with few exceptions, people all seem to agree about what those standards are. Which brings me to my next point. ..2: Agreement Across Geographic and Cultural LinesWhat one notices in reading history is how people groups have viewed moral standards so simlarly. I do not say that all people in all places at all times have agreed about everything but they seem to all agree about most of the major standards of morality. If one looks at Confucius, Socrates, Jesus Christ, Ghandi, and Marcus Aurelius one will find much more agreement than dissension. Everyone seems to agree that people should not kill other people just for fun,and one should not lie, cheat or steal just to improve one's position. You will be hard pressed to find many people who think that bravery is bad or that kindness is morally repugnant. In fact, when you do see such people in history, they tend to be almost universally condemned as bad men and women. Why is this so? If moral standards were really subjective to each individual, you would expect to see wide ranging variances concerning what is right and wrong. Instead we see very few variances. We may disagree about whether abortion is wrong, but for most reasonable people the issue is whether it is in fact a child who is being killed. You will find very few who say "I don't care if it is a child. A woman should be able to murder it if she feels like doing so. " We may argue about whether a particular war is morally right to involve ourselves in but those arguing will generally apply the known moral standard to make their points pro and con. Of course if there were no standard outside of ourselves it would be nonsense to argue at all since neither party in the argument could possibly have a truer notion of what was right than the other party because the standards were derived from each person's own particular preferences. Conclusion:If one does not accept the objectivity of moral standards one has no basis upon which to hold others accountable for their actions. One may choose not to like Charles Manson or Ghengis Khan, or Hitler or Stalin but it would be nonsense to suggest that they were bad men. There would be no such thing as a bad man or a bad woman. Goodbye civil rights, hello subjugation of every person weaker or different than the majority. Of course anyone's argument that society should treat the weaker person with respect would be laughable because there would be no basis, no standard to call to one's aid to make such arguments. The fact is that every person inherently knows there is a right and a wrong and people usually exhibit signs of what we refer to as a conscience, becoming uneasy when they have violated the standard. A world of subjective morals is a frightening place. Providentially for us there are clearly moral standards. Right and wrong are objective truths.