And then there are the Christian terrorists June 19, 2007
Posted by Joe in Christianity, belief, freethought, god, immorality, morality, religion, theism.add a comment
Festivities include a “Reenactment of 7-29-1994″.
Someone tell me that’s a hoax.
Secular Ethics June 11, 2007
Posted by Joe in belief, blogs, ethics, immorality, morality, psychology.add a comment
Here is an interesting blog about a system of secular ethics, or more specifically how to decide what is right or wrong without consulting the supernatural.
Absolute Morality? June 7, 2007
Posted by Joe in belief, ethics, freethought, logic, morality, psychology, skepticism.1 comment so far
In a recent blog comment discussion I struggled to explain subjective morality. Here I would like to switch things around a bit and give my thoughts on absolute morality.
My working definition of absolute morality will be a specific unmodifiable set of moral codes that are held to be completely correct and unvarying through time. It has a few advantages.
The big one is the certainty and simplicity. You can easily judge your own or others actions just by looking at the absolute code and seeing if they fit. Most things are easy to figure out. There is no gray area. Everything is either clearly moral or clearly immoral.
But my question is this, can there really be such a thing as absolute morality?
What does it mean to be a moral person? June 7, 2007
Posted by Joe in agnosticism, atheism, belief, ethics, freethought, immorality, morality, psychology, skepticism, theism.1 comment so far
This is not an easy question to answer. It is an issue that philosophers have been struggling with for centuries. I don’t pretend to have figured it all out, but I do have my own thoughts on the issue.
First I want to consider the source of morality from a secular perspective. I believe that individual concepts of morality come primarily from two sources.
Call it genetics, call it innate, call it whatever, but it does seem there is a sense of fairness that just comes “built-in” to most people. Children have a highly developed sense of “fairness” which at first is quite selfish, but as they develop they come to apply to others. As a child grows he develops a Theory of Mind, which is a natural human understanding and empathy for the “other”. They grasp the idea that other people are like them. This is when they see that fairness is not about getting their share, but about everyone wanting a “fair share”.
Then there are external influences. How a person makes moral decisions will depend highly upon what they learn to value. If they grow up in a environment which values possessions, their morals will contain strong rules against stealing and abusing property. If they are brought up in an environment that values personal expression, their morals will contain strong rules against suppress of creative and expressive impulses. If the environment contains religious influences then their morals will be highly influenced by the religious instruction that they receive.
All told a persons morals are a part of their personality and a result of genetics, development and environment.
