----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 6:18 AM Subject: Re: Religion and ethics
> On Mon, Jul 08, 2002 at 12:17:35AM -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote: > > > From: "William T Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > So either good and evil are matters of opinion > > > > For the most part they are not. > > What are they if not opinion? Are they absolutes, like the laws of > physics? Keep in mind that anyone can test the laws of physics by doing > an experiment, and they will get the same results as as anyone else > who does the same physics experiment. What is the comparable test for > absolute good and evil? Please allow me to be metaphorical. It works well in this instance. The Tree Of Morality Morality is a lot like a great oak tree. The limbs and leaves can sway in the breeze and in this can be similar to the specifics of the extremes of morality over the course of time. This sounds a lot like what you and William refer to and in this sense you are correct. But the base of morality is like the trunk of the oak. It is solid and mostly immovable in much the same way that I claim morality to be. In this metaphor we are all correct, but are looking at different aspects of morality. > > > >or most (all) of the people who ever lived were (are) unwittingly > > >evildoers. > > > > Uh....Yes! I think this is a given at least to a moderate degree. > > Just about everyone has taken a cookie from the cookie jar. > > Umm, isn't that what the cookie jar is for? Holding cookies for people > to take? That doesn't seem evil to me... Perhaps I should have said stolen rather than taken. > > > Discussion is in no way a basis for morality. > > Discussion dont mean beans. > > What IS a basis for morality? What "do" mean beans? Farts often mean beans, but then farts can mean cabbage too. <G> > > > But morality does not extend from authority. > > Morality extends from sentience. > > Can you prove that? > I would guess that you are more familiar with "Game theory" than I am. Our brains are usefull for more than just storing experience. Brains also process information and make decisions. The human race *learns* morality. And while morality is passed down generationally, it is also refined as it is passed. Morality is a process just as much as it is a set of rules. And not only do you process morality, it also processes you. Morality is a kind of symbiotic meme. Symbiotic not only with human beings, but with the memes of civilisation, and the meme of what it means to be human. In this, I find morality to be a seperate issue from religion, belief in deities, and religious/deistic morality (a seperate subject). xponent We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident Maru rob
