Hi Platt,
Platt, you asked:
All of which raises the question: Is Christian morality also an
intellectual level morality? --
Steve:
If what you are talking about the Golden Rule, aka the ethics of
reciprocity I would agree. Why would anyone take me seriously if I do
to them what I say that I don't want done to me? This is an exteremly
rational approach to morality. In fact, virtually every
culture/religion has developed it's own articulation of this moral
strategy. See http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm
Platt:
The Golden Rule takes many forms and has been, as you say, found in one
form another in almost every culture. In fact, I recall some Darwinists
saying the "ethics of reciprocity" is an inherited trait since some
higher
animals have been observed to behave that way, e.g, "You scratch my
back
and I'll scratch yours." Whether we can call that "rational" is an open
question. Perhaps "expedient" would be more accurate.
Steve:
I brought up the ethics of reciprocity because I could not think of
what else you could be thinking of in saying that Christian morality
may be intellectual. If you don't see the Golden Rule as rational, what
else about Christian morality could be thought of as intellectual?
Steve:
However, Christians generally view morality as trying not to anger
their god rather than in terms of trying to find ways of promoting
human flourishing or promoting the evolution of static patterns toward
dynamic quality. So I would say that Christian ethics may often be
consistent with an intellectual approach to morality, but it is based
on authority, a social pattern, rather than intellect.
Platt:
Good point about authority being a social pattern. As a practical
matter, I
wonder if moral guidelines aren't more efficacious when based on
accountability to the authority of God rather than rely on the
authority of
some SOM intellectual atheist who says that's what nice people do.
Steve:
I think you'd have a hard time finding any data supporting the
hypothesis that believers are better behaved than atheists even by
believer's moral standards regarding crime, teenage pregnancy, child
molestation, etc. In fact, countries that are the most atheistic tend
to have the lowest crime rates, highest literacy rates, least poverty,
etc.
It looks like teaching children to care about other people can work at
least as well as teaching kids to fear invisible gods.
Regards,
Steve
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