Where does that gut feeling of right and wrong come from? (...and I am not looking for pat answers here).
Is Faith Immoral?
by Coded Logic 82 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Coded Logic
Jgnat - The short answer is Mirrior Neurons and our large Frontal Lobes. There's been tremendouse research done on this exact question - if you're really interested in this sort of thing I would recomend that you familiarize yourself with COGNITIVE EMPATHY, EMPATHIC DISTRESS, and THEORY of MIND.
Here's a great little video that goes over some of the basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
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Band on the Run
I don't see my faith as illogical. It is logical. Further, it is my lifestyle choice. It is impossible for me to judge whether someone's faith is immoral. I've attended various faiths. Not one was so bad as people here argue. Faith can be good or bad. It is my choice. Choice. A mark of western civilization.
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MadGiant
"Where does that gut feeling of right and wrong come from? (...and I am not looking for pat answers here)." -
Morals are sets of self-perpetuating and ideologically-driven behaviors which encourage human cooperation. That’s why we live in societies. Social animals, from ants to elephants, have modified their behaviors, by restraining immediate selfishness in order to improve their evolutionary fitness. Human morality though sophisticated and complex relative to other animals, is essentially a natural phenomenon.
Morality is derived from the Latin moralitas, or “manner, character, and proper behavior.” Morality has to do with how you act toward others. In societies they have always be present to some extents. You can, of course, act in a way that has no effect on anyone else, and in this case morality isn’t involved. But given the choice between acting in a way that increases someone else’s moral good or not, it is more moral to do so than not.
We need an evolutionary understanding of where a strong sense of right and wrong comes from as an instinct, and a neurobiological account of how our brains function or not when they engage in ethical reasoning.
Morality involves conscious choice, and the choice to act in a manner that increases someone else’s moral good, then, is a moral act, and its opposite is an immoral act.
Ismael
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MadGiant
"Where does that gut feeling of right and wrong come from? (...and I am not looking for pat answers here)." -
The whole reason we have a civilization is because humans are naturally cooperative.
Studies performed by researchers at Harvard and Yale found that our basic human nature dictates an overwhelming need to cooperate with other humans, even if said cooperation results in some measure of harm to ourselves. Biologists say the same thing.
In recent regional crises like Atlanta's blizzard-induced traffic gridlock and Hurricane Sandy, examples of basic human kindness weren't difficult to find. When serious tragedy hits a community, most people's first impulse is to see what they can to do help their neighbors, rather than to carry all of their canned food into the basement and start loading their shotguns. It's not even because we're nice guys, it's because instinctively we know that we might need that person down the road. So even if some worldwide crisis were to transform us all into selfish mutants, the theory of reciprocal altruism suggests that we'd probably still be willing to share that can of beanie weenies if it meant we could get something in return later.
Even monkeys can figure that out.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/06/21/chimpanzees-murder-for-land/#.U_00edm9Kc0
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/mitani/homeTake care,
Ismael
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-probe-human-nature-and-discover-we-are-good-after-all/
http://www.comw.org/socbio899.html
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~lds/pdfs/Warneken&Tomasello_2009b.pdf -
Band on the Run
What legitimacy do those who feel faith is immoral. I refuse to submit. The WT can't rule me; neither can anyone else. Why leave the Witnesses to have some dingaling make decisions, The very question is presumptous.
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Dis-Member
Dis-Member, then at least a part of me never grew up. My marriage is a November romance and I fell just as hard. Even as my logical side cried for caution, I fell in to the well of emotion. Illogical, foolish, but it worked out anyhow.
Dis-Member, I have an idea why faith might be more dangerous. Why do you think so?
When I fall it's with without reservation but tempered with reason.
Blind Faith is more dangerous.. because with blind love you can only hurt 2 people, the love object and yourself, with blind faith your can hurt yourself and potentially every other living thing you come into contact with.
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Band on the Run
The scariest part of 9/11 for me was how nice everyone was. I suppose the worst thing that happened before that was John Lennon's assasination. There was a sense of community for a certain age. 9/11 everyplace you went, every person you saw was so wounded. There was no place to escape. The streets were so quiet. People wanted to help but there was little we could do. I decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the weekend. There must have been about fifteen people in the whole museum. I walked and walked before I saw another person.
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Finkelstein
Is Faith Immoral?
Kind of depends what that faith brings to in action and behavior.
Faith can be so persuasively destructive that it can drive people to kill others who may not have the same Faith that you personally do.
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Band on the Run
I doubt I will murder anyone. Who determines what is right? C.S. Lewis pointed to a set of rules that religions impose around the world.