RE: The Ethics of Belief
July 22, 2015 at 10:08 pm
(This post was last modified: July 22, 2015 at 10:14 pm by bennyboy.)
I think you have skipped the other side of the coin: it may be that there are many beliefs which lead to immoral behavior BECAUSE someone has accurately assessed something in reality. There is sufficient evidence that humans represent a net negative for the world. It wouldn't be hard to establish the belief that the only way to save most of nature would be to start killing as many people as possible. I would argue that this is an immoral beleif, because mores are a human construct meant to sustain and better individuals and the species as a whole.
What say you? Is it immoral to act to remove people from the world, whatever kind of people they are, simply because the reality is that we cause harm?
I think I might take the position that forming beliefs based on sufficient evidence is immoral, because ultimately it will lead to self-deleterious positions on the importance of humanity. As you say, though individual beliefs might not seem deleterious, they are all connected, and we may eventually arrive at a self-negating position, with the unfortunate behaviors that could stem from that.
What say you? Is it immoral to act to remove people from the world, whatever kind of people they are, simply because the reality is that we cause harm?
I think I might take the position that forming beliefs based on sufficient evidence is immoral, because ultimately it will lead to self-deleterious positions on the importance of humanity. As you say, though individual beliefs might not seem deleterious, they are all connected, and we may eventually arrive at a self-negating position, with the unfortunate behaviors that could stem from that.
