On 2/7/2013 12:01 PM, Platonist Guitar Cowboy wrote:
There might be confusion between necessary and possible dangers.
If there is, you haven't cleared it up.
Necessary danger: It’s legal for your neighbor to walk on to your property and shoot you
for emotional reasons or it’s legal to burn a minority on racial grounds etc.
What's 'necessary' about either one of those events? First, if it were legal it would
still be extremely unlikely (my neighbor likes me) and certainly no necessary. Second, it
can happen even though it is illegal. So it's a possible danger - but not necessitated by
anything.
Possible danger: eating hallucinogenic mushrooms or driving a car (more die of the
latter on % basis).
These involve some degree of danger, so you are required to meet certain criteria and get
a license to drive a car and there are various rules for traffic to reduce the degree of
danger. That more people die of car accidents than eating hallucinogenic mushrooms is not
really to the point. Many more people drive and ride in cars that eat hallucinogenic
mushrooms and they thereby accomplish many things useful to society as well as too
themselves, while of hallucinating is of dubious value. In any case eating hallucinogenic
mushrooms is widely tolerated in the U.S. and it's not even clear that it is illegal under
federal law, independent of any religious claims.
Beating people in public/private again: necessary, forced harm; no matter how you look
at it. Smoking a herb: possibly, depends on how you look at it.
“A secular purpose” is a nice ruse, because it is “theology-free”, right?
Yes it is. It's not dependent on any ultimate foundation of the universe (per Bruno's
definition of 'theology') or even any agreement about what that might be. It only depends
on the public subjective non-religious values of society as expressed in their laws.
That's what 'secular' means.
Brent
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