Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: January 4, 2025, 8:29 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Morality is like a religion
#29
RE: Morality is like a religion
(August 18, 2015 at 11:34 pm)Detective L Ryuzaki Wrote: I have come up with a theory here that explains how the moral (personal value judgment) version of good and bad is fake and does not make us and our lives good or bad.  That there is a scientific version of good and bad that humanity and science is unaware of.




In conclusion, morality and the thinking area of our brains alone would not give our lives any good or bad meaning.  It would only be a matter of choices and decisions.  It would only be a matter of avoiding or pursuing certain situations and nothing more.  We wouldn't even refer to the acts of Hitler as being bad.  We would still say that Hitler's life was good since he derived pleasant emotions from harming the Jews.  Morality does not exist.  It would no longer have the terms good and bad for it.  It is all just a matter of how we as human beings socialize and interact and nothing more.  Our pleasant and unpleasant feelings/emotions are a feeling/emotional version of good and bad and not any moral version of good and bad.

I think you are on to something here.
However, you are neglecting to consider that the individual is embedded in a system larger than itself.
Personal good and bad could be, as you say, only restatements of the pleasant and unpleasant emotions of one person, a reflection of the activity of the brain's reward system.  But if one considers a higher level of complexity, that of the family, the community or the state, good or bad would have to be re-defined.  

My model defines morality as contextual to the replicating system to which it applies.  e.g. good or bad for the person is not good or bad for the community.  The community might find it convenient to sacrifice the individual for the community's smooth operation.  It could confine or kill that individual for the benefit of itself.
A more nuanced definition of a moral action in my model is this: an action taken by or acting on a replicating system is moral from the system's perspective if it serves to aid the replication and expansion of that system. It may be a tautology that this definition results in the perpetuation and expansion of moral systems.  

Your depression and anhedonia are sub-optimal, bad, for your community as you are likely unable to participate fully in communal activities.  Diagnosis and treatment are therefore  moral actions.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat? Huh
Reply



Messages In This Thread
Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 18, 2015 at 11:34 pm
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Shuffle - August 19, 2015 at 12:14 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 12:52 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 1:01 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by abaris - August 19, 2015 at 2:09 pm
RE: Morality is like a religion - by strawdawg - August 30, 2015 at 11:45 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 4:58 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 6:14 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 6:23 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 6:31 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 6:36 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 7:31 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 7:38 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 7:43 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 7:45 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 7:49 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 7:52 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 7:57 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 7:59 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 8:01 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 8:04 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 8:06 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 8:07 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 8:53 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 12:34 pm
RE: Morality is like a religion - by robvalue - August 19, 2015 at 1:18 pm
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 19, 2015 at 1:52 pm
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Detective L Ryuzaki - August 20, 2015 at 12:53 am
RE: Morality is like a religion - by Shuffle - August 26, 2015 at 11:16 pm
RE: Morality is like a religion - by JuliaL - August 26, 2015 at 11:52 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Morality Kingpin 101 8985 May 31, 2023 at 6:48 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  A Case for Inherent Morality JohnJubinsky 66 8727 June 22, 2021 at 10:35 am
Last Post: John 6IX Breezy
  Morality without God Superjock 102 11956 June 17, 2021 at 6:10 pm
Last Post: Ranjr
  World War I, religion died in the 20th century, science triumphed in religion in the Interaktive 35 5701 December 24, 2019 at 10:50 am
Last Post: Interaktive
  Morality Agnostico 337 46873 January 30, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  Developing systems of morality, outside of religious influence. Kookaburra 28 4939 March 20, 2018 at 1:27 am
Last Post: haig
  Objective morality as a proper basic belief Little Henry 609 183441 July 29, 2017 at 1:02 am
Last Post: Astonished
Video The Married Atheist vid: Morality from science? robvalue 5 2200 March 19, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Last Post: brewer
  Does religion corrupt morality? Whateverist 95 29390 September 7, 2015 at 2:54 am
Last Post: Wyrd of Gawd
  thoughts on morality Kingpin 16 6810 July 29, 2015 at 11:49 am
Last Post: Pyrrho



Users browsing this thread: 3 Guest(s)