The author proclaims that he is shocked, shocked that other people are wrong, even though he himself is right. Then he proceeds to analyze why almost everyone else got it wrong, without once trying to justify his own position using any argument other than professed astonishment that any thinking person could disagree.

I think you took this post in unnecessarily bad faith, Perplexed...unless this is an area where you've already had frustrating head-banging-on-wall discussions, in which case I understand. I did not detect any particular 'shocked-ness' in the author's explanation of how he understands morality.

I think - and have, for as long as I can remember - that morality is about doing the right thing. But this is not what most people think morality is about!

Okay, reading back I can see your point, but I still don't find it offensive in any way. As far as I can tell, all that he's claiming is that a) people claim morality is about one thing (doing the right thing) but they discuss it and act on it as if it's something different (the freedom to choose, or soul-karma-points). If he's right, it wouldn't be the first time that a word had multiple meanings to different people, but it would explain why morality is such a touchy subject in discussion. I read this post and thought "wow, I never noticed that before, that's interesting...that could explain a lot."

My one complaint is that 'doing the right thing' is presented as atomic, as obvious, which I'm pretty sure it isn't. What paradigm do you personally use to determine 'right', Phil?