Thank God for Morals ?

by PSacramento 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  cofty

  Sometimes being moral DOES cause unnecessary suffering, does that make the action immoral then?
  
  If by me giving food to someone when I am hungry, causes me to be hungry, is it immoral to give food?

  You are right, sometimes we are faced with Hobson's choice. The moral thing is that which minimises suffering.

  As for a choice between personal suffering and the suffering of others there is no easy answer, most ethical decisions are complex. Will you be hungry to the point of endangering your life? When will you get food next? Whose need is greater? There are no easy answers, that's the problem with written codes they break down too easily in the real world.

  Interesting studies on reciprocal altruism in the animal kingdom studied vampire bats. If a bat fails to find blood on an evening, a neighboring bat will usually regurgitate some blood for him back at the roost. If a bat reneges when its time to pay back, he is made to pay by being rejected next time he goes hungry. Human society is a little more complex but that's why we got the big frontal lobes.

  Ethics are relative - "minimise suffering"
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  PSacramento

  Thanks for that post Crofty.
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  chicken little

  Just read newspaper article here in Denmark..not sure where the source info is from, it says Harvard University has undertaken a survey of thousands of people worldwide and they all took a Moral Sense Test. The result is that we all decide the same morally no matter what our religion, background etc is. The thinking is that morality is inborn and therefore prior to religious influence.

  I will try and track down the study.
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  chicken little

  Try moral sense test on Harvard University webpage....very interesting
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  WTWizard

  God invented guilt. For what? Things like sexual "immorality" (that is, sex for any purpose except reproducing so you could have children to infect with the cancer of religion). Things like enjoying oneself too much. Ever heard terms like "decadent" and "sinfully delicious" being used by advertisers to describe foods? I have, and they are not derogatory but descriptive of the extreme pleasure one might expect from eating it. You also see religion acting to limit pleasure from other sources--even Christmas, which purists are complaining about the "excessive materialism and commercialism" that leads to much of the joy of the holiday season.

  It is of high note that Jesus did not condemn the "sins" themselves. Jesus did not condemn the sinners. Jesus did not try to instill guilt when you "sin". Rather, Jesus wanted people to use their brains to solve problems and create value, which would reduce the "sins" that were really symptoms of stagnation. Jesus reserved guilt trips for those who deserved them--those that created the inhibitions and stagnation that held back society. You will not see that in religion, because religion paints Jesus as having zero tolerance for the symptoms of stagnation.