> I'm not sure what to tell you about my feelings regarding this.

Most people submit to another kind of authority that is elusive because it can't always be pinned down. Do you believe it's wrong to kill another human being? (Hopefully you answer "yes.") The followup question is, is the reason you believe it to be wrong because you dictate that it is wrong, meaning you could later change you mind and dictate that it be permissible and have that indeed be the case, or for some other, possibly as yet unknown reason?

Most people would (again, hopefully) say that just declare to yourself, "I've decided that killing is actually ok," does not make it so. That implies that there is some other kind of authority out there that you believe you should be submissive to. Where that authority comes from, as long as it doesn't come from your personal moral decisions, doesn't matter -- it's external to you, and so you are subject to some other higher authority in the matter of killing.

A great many people, thankfully, would concede the existence of this kind of higher authority, even if they couldn't pinpoint where it comes from. Few today, however, that don't pinpoint it (as Christians and other religious types tend to for themselves) believe that this authority extends to personal actions that do not directly affect other people. And that doesn't seem like an unreasonable conclusion, to my mind, especially if you're not already coming from a religious stance.

At any rate, Iss, am I correct that a lack of any concession at all to whatever authority keeps us from killing others (and raping, stealing, cheating, harming, betraying, etc) is what you're saying enrages you? And/or a lack of willingness to discern for oneself how far this authority extends?