Agree that this thread will never agree on a definition of "immoral."
I would also suggest that we will have a hard time defining "unacted upon." For example, if you lust after your secretary (sorry, don't mean to be personal, just let's assume you have a secretary and that you lust after her - or we could assume I lust after my secretary - LOL! please don't tell her!!!) Wouldn't you behave differently towards her than if you didn't lust after her? And maybe behave differently towards your wife, as well?
Maybe we should pick a fictional character. Let's be dull and boring and pick John Doe.
John Doe, horny reprobate that he is, on one fine day in June, feels the following emotions: upon viewing his secretary bending over to put paper into the copy machine, feels a fleeting sensation of lust; upon being trapped in a conversation with a man he casually detests, idly wonders what would happen if he punched the guy in the nose; upon arriving home after work, and finding that his wife has not yet come home from work, entertains for a moment the wish that she would be killed in a car wreck, as painlessly as possible; seeing his daughter walking down the sidewalk with her two best girlfriends, feels a fleeting sensation of lust for all three of them.
He has never cheated on his wife, has always behaved like a perfect gentleman to everyone in his entire life. Are John Doe's thoughts, upon which he will never act, immoral? And is John Doe an immoral person for having these thoughts, which he immediately squelches. |
