I will assume that you are addressing me. If not, then feel free to ignore this post.
In answer to your questions/comments:
“An opinion can be true if it's based on facts, or false if it's not.”
I have never said that an opinion could not be true or false.
“Or do you mean to say, "anything other than staying alive is a *preference*"?”
I believe that Ayn Rand stated that even staying alive is a preference. As CriticalThinker2000 stated, man does not have an automatic course of action and constantly faces the alternatives of life and death. So, it seems that it could be argued that everything, even staying alive, is a preference.
“Or do you mean to say, "Only very obvious human action outcomes dealing with life and death can be evaluated as moral or not?"”
No. As it has been discussed before, you can evaluate anything as moral or not once you have stated your starting point and defined morality as a means of obtaining your starting point. It is the starting point that is, or could be, a matter of opinion.
“This thread is all over the place, with you apparently changing your root questions and problems every other post.”
I asked a question in the original post. Some people have been gracious enough to provide their answer(s) to the question. Once the answer was provided, if I did not understand the answer or had a question based on the answer, I would ask further questions. Sometimes people responded and sometimes they did not. If the ensuing posts went “all over the place” then I have to chalk that up to the nature of a dynamic discussion. Of course, no one, not even you, has been forced to answer any of my questions or participate in any discussion or even read this thread.
“Sometimes you agree with Objectivist ethics.”
Yes, sometimes I agree with Objectivist ethics.
“Sometimes you say there is no ethics.”
Please quote or reference the post(s) where I state there is no ethics. I do not believe that I have ever stated that or anything similar. If you interpret my statement that morality is a matter of opinion, or any of my other statements, to mean that I say “there is no ethics”, that is your interpretation of my statements.
“Sometimes you say your questions haven't been answered, when they have.”
The only time I stated that my questions have not been answered (as far as I can recall) was addressed to you here:
You responded with, “You asked many questions…” and provided a link to the Ayn Rand Lexicon. http://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?showtopic=27428&page=3#entry325390
Now if my memory is faulty and I have stated in other posts that my questions have not been answered when they have been answered, please quote or provide the references and I will conceded your point.
“Sometimes you say we should provide you with your gaps in understanding, placing the responsibility on us instead of you.”
Again, please provide quotes or provide references to the posts where I have stated that someone should or had the responsibility to provide me with information to fill the gaps in my understanding. I may have asked you, or anyone, a question about something that was written in an attempt to gain understanding but I have never stated you or anyone else is responsible for explaining anything. To me, it appears that your complaint stems from the fact that I did not automatically and unquestioningly accept your statements as truth thereby filling the gaps in my understanding and rendering further discussion unnecessary. Of course that is my interpretation.
“What is your goal in participating in this thread?”
I want to learn.
FredAnyman got a reaction from Harrison Danneskjold in How can one state that something is moral?