Hi Steve and all interested, Today's NYTimes has an interesting article entitled, "Morals Without God?" The author, a biologist, writes:
"It is impossible to know what morality would be like without religion. It would require a visit to a human culture that is not now and never was religious. That such cultures do not exist should give us pause." Some cultures come very close to being "without religion." Their contribution to human well-being is somewhat less than Harris would approve. North Korea comes to mind. And looking back at cultures without religion in the 20th century -- "The horror!" Concentration camps, gulags, the Great Leap Forward -- those are just the tip of the human misery from "rational" social policies, exceeding by far the suffering caused in the name of religion. The author concludes with this observation: "Any framework we develop to advocate a certain moral outlook is bound to produce its own list of principles, its own prophets, and attract its own devoted followers, so it will soon look like any old religion." A cautionary note lest our approval of Pirsig, Harris or any other "rationalist" becomes a cult. Best, Platt Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
