[net.religion] Where's the Morality?

david@ssc-vax.UUCP (05/01/84)

Rich Rosen:

> Aren't the chemicals in one's brain and body subject to those same
> physical laws that govern billiard balls.  (Or rather, isn't their motion
> described by those same physical laws?)  To say that the brain and body of
> a person are not within the same realm of physical law is to make a very
> bold assumption.  What is the reason for even thinking of making such an
> assumption?  Is there some facet of human existence that is unexplained
> by the same physical laws that govern "inanimate" objects?

I do not like what I find when I carry this reasoning to its logical
conclusion.  Are murder and rape then justifiable as a particular mixture of
chemicals and electrical impulses in our brain, none of which we are
responsible for?  By the same token, are virtues such as patience, love,
or gentleness not to be rewarded for the same reason?  Does Desert have no
meaning in such a system?

>> ... EXPERIENCE PROVES THIS,OR THAT, OR NOTHING, ACCORDING
>> TO THE PRECONCEPTIONS WE BRING TO IT. (italics mine)

> Most of all, it can lead to preconceptions about the nature of the universe
> based on one's own subjective ideas---there is a god watching over me who
> knows what's good and tells us, and I know this because by believing in him
> my life has changed.

By the same reasoning: "Most of all, it can lead to preconceptions about the
nature of the universe based on one's own subjective ideas--there is no god,
and I know this because I have seen no evidence to prove it."  Your statement
proves nothing.

	-- David Norris        :-)
	-- uw-beaver!ssc-vax!david