RE: Evolution of morality
February 25, 2011 at 10:21 am
(This post was last modified: February 25, 2011 at 10:23 am by Captain Scarlet.)
(February 18, 2011 at 5:52 pm)OnlyNatural Wrote: I firmly believe that human morality has evolved along with the rest of us, and religion/God is not necessary (and in fact often gets in the way) when it comes to behaving ethically.
I'm sure the atheists here agree, I just thought this video summed it up well.
1. No one has demonstrated that morality actually exists as a thing instantiated in the universe. As RJ has described there are social norms which we consent to as humans, some of which are consistent across geographies some of the time. But I am not aware of any moral code that is followed across all of time and space by a particular species. Morality is a concept within the framework of ethics, which helps us to describe the way we feel in certain situations. Much as numbers are concepts in the framework of maths which help us calculate; outside their frameworks morality/numbers are abstract concepts which do not exist.
2. Evolution. It depends what you mean. In its purest sense yes. But when used in this context implies progression. For me it is only "moral" change that we have gone through, which has been forced upon us by urban dwelling, civilisation, healthcare and in the west and now the east wealth. Remove some of those and we will undergo change over time which will perhaps be viewed as regressive, but will infact be just change
"I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence"...Doug McLeod.
