Immanuel Can wrote:
Greta wrote: ↑Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:03 am
We, as part of the body of humanity on the body of biology built on the bones of geology, actually think and feel almost identically, like microbes and ants, yet our solipsism blinds us to this obvious fact.
(IC replied)I have no idea what conclusion you're trying to draw here, so I can't really formulate a reaction. It just looks to me like fulminating about an "IS," (bones, geology, whatnot) and hoping to get an "OUGHT" to jump out of it...like "we ought not to be solipsistic," or something. But there's no logical connection to suggest how that's supposed to happen, if that's it.
The context of Greta's statement of fact means to me what I recently tried to explain to you, Immanuel. Naturalism provides a base for morality.
We men are natural. Fact. Any moral system which ignores that fact won't work. That any society needs moral consensus is also a fact. A human society's moral consensus is expressed by a myth or myths. The myth of the punitive God suited a society where individuals were subservient to more powerful individuals. The myth of the punitive God does not accord with democracy.
Modern democracy arose simultaneously with increase of reason and knowledge of man's natural inheritance. The upshot of this combination is that educated individuals look for the natural causes of morality, not the supernatural ones. In practice the latter means that educated people look for the natural causes of crime, not the supernatural one that you endorse i.e. that criminals disobey God's commands. This myth once was suited to society, not any more now that we are democratic or aim to be.This punitive God myth suits societies where individuals know their places and obey their social superiors.
I say "educated". You intrigue me, Immanuel. You are clever, no slouch when it comes to reading, and as a result are quite well informed. Yet, oddly, you don't look at man's religious quest and behaviours objectively.