by cofty 188 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Eden:
Do you have a better explanation for that?
if i have an explanation or not does not constitute proof you are correct. If we cant agree on that point then the talking dragon in my garage would also like to offer some input...
If our ethical values are derived from religion, how do you account for universals like the preference against incest?
(Sorry, work caught me)
I don't understand the relevance of the issue about the [so called] universallity of the social rejection of incest. Would you care to elaborate further on your question?
Eden
If all cultures invent taboos on for instance incest, does that not indicate that value is not religiously determined?
The answer to that is usually seen on what the perceived consequences are for the ones who break the morals. In most cases, the punishment for the transgression is attributed to the divinity (whatever that may be in each case), or to people acting on behalf of the divinity. So, also in this example, an ethic value ties in closely with religion.
Eden
Am I one of the 0.01% that has looked at the facts or is toranapart, or bith of us?
I don't know. Have you committed countless hours over many years considering the evidence, and wrestling with the big questions from all sides?
EdenOne, it is possible that you are confusing cause with symptom. Pinker suggests that the "eww factor" is hardwired in us. Various cultures and religions codify this natural inclination.
Jgnat
I'm not aware that Steven Pinker ever linked the "ewww factor" with incest; if he did, I would stand corrected. Rather, he focused on human reactions to physiological items (feces, urine, blood, pus ... ) and rot. Interestingly, other studies concluded that children of up to 3 years old don't seem to be "hardwired" at all in this manner. Only when they start to clearly understand what their parents tell them to eat/don't eat or touch/don't touch, is when they develop the "ewww factor" and some other religious-based cognitions, such as "kosher food". Thus, even the "ewww factor", as universal as it may be, appears to have both cultural and biological causes, likely a combination of both, but where the cultural wheighs in more.
Eden
Eden you have taken the thread off on a tangent.
It's a heads-up about a new book that has been written to help and encourage atheists to challenge faith-based thinking.
Do you think that is a valid enterprise?
At one time in my life I raised domestic rats. For the first few months of their development, they were tame, unafraid. Then, POW, as a group they became afraid of sudden movement. I clap my hands and they jolt for the nearest cover. Developmental or culturally imposed? It certainly is a handy instinct for a rat.
Following the rabbit trail, quoting Pinker:
"Violations of purity repelled the people who judged the morality of consensual incest and prevented the moral vegetarians and nonsmokers from tolerating the slightest trace of a vile contaminant" -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Pinker lists incest as a violation of the native desire (among people) for purity.
