On Monday, December 22, 2014, Bruce Kellett <[email protected]> wrote:
> Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > >> On Monday, December 22, 2014, Bruce Kellett <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> Stathis Papaioannou wrote: >> On Monday, December 22, 2014, Bruce Kellett >> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> >> wrote: >> John Clark wrote: >> >> On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 , Bruce Kellett >> <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >An instinct for self-preservation is unrelated to >> whether or not >> you have a fear of death, or of oblivion >> >> Unrelated?? Don't be ridiculous! Why the hell do you >> imagine >> Evolution >> invented the fear of death in the first place? >> >> >> Evolution did not "invent a fear of death". That is purely >> cultural, >> and is not even associated with consciousness -- it comes >> only with >> self-awareness and an inner narrative. Evolution gave living >> things >> an instinct for self-preservation. But you can have such an >> instinct >> operating healthily and still not fear death. Fear of death >> probably >> comes from a fear of the unknown, and is linked to the fear of >> prolonged suffering. But oblivion is oblivion -- it is not >> something >> to be feared because no-one has ever experienced it, or can >> ever >> experience it. >> >> >> Following that reasoning, do you believe there is nothing wrong >> with murder? >> >> >> How on earth did you get that from what I said? >> >> >> If there's nothing wrong with oblivion, and murder leads to oblivion, >> then there's nothing wrong with murder. >> > > You slip too easily from "oblivion is not something to be feared" to > "oblivion [death] is a universal good to be sought by and for everyone". > > Do you really think that the only reason people don't go out and commit > widespread random murder is that they fear oblivion? The reason most people > don't commit murder is that they think that murder is wrong. That has got > nothing to do with fearing anything. Sure, for some religious people, the > reason they refrain from doing wrong things is fear of eternal punishment. > But that is a perversion of religion even more than it is a lapse of common > sense. > I think you're missing the point. If murder leads to oblivion and oblivion is not bad, then murder is not bad - unless you can think of some other worse effect of murder. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
