These lines are not my opinion. However, Such lines of ´reasoning´ are often the base of wars and actions that kill many people. When you look at war rethoric throughout the ages, you´ll find that some elements are stunningly common.
The inherent problem with moral behavior, reason, etc, is that humans act very much on instincts, whether they are religious or not. Worse yet, few people really know to what extend instinct governs our lives. Free will is smaller then we thought. Just a small and non/moral example: When you let people choose between getting a 100 dollars now, or 110 dollars next week, most people will choose the 100 dollars now. Why? There is no logical reason for it, but people do it nonetheless. Even up to the highest regions (banks) you'll find that behavior and attitude towards money. Not always because people are evil/greedy, but our deepest instinct tells us that it's better to have something today then bet for tomorrow. T
here has been a great amount of research that shows that behavior often depends on looks of others, smells, positioning of objects, the way they have been raised, where they live...
We have to accept this. We have known little of what drives us and why. But reason does help in here: it has been pointing out inherent systems andparts of instincts which drive our behavior and makes us make non-logical descisions. Armed with this knowledge, people can try to skate around these instincts, and wonder why they REALLY do what they do, without coming up with an excuse.
The inherent problem with moral behavior, reason, etc, is that humans act very much on instincts, whether they are religious or not. Worse yet, few people really know to what extend instinct governs our lives. Free will is smaller then we thought. Just a small and non/moral example: When you let people choose between getting a 100 dollars now, or 110 dollars next week, most people will choose the 100 dollars now. Why? There is no logical reason for it, but people do it nonetheless. Even up to the highest regions (banks) you'll find that behavior and attitude towards money. Not always because people are evil/greedy, but our deepest instinct tells us that it's better to have something today then bet for tomorrow. T
here has been a great amount of research that shows that behavior often depends on looks of others, smells, positioning of objects, the way they have been raised, where they live...
We have to accept this. We have known little of what drives us and why. But reason does help in here: it has been pointing out inherent systems andparts of instincts which drive our behavior and makes us make non-logical descisions. Armed with this knowledge, people can try to skate around these instincts, and wonder why they REALLY do what they do, without coming up with an excuse.
When I was a Christian, I was annoyed with dogmatic condescending Christians. Now that I'm an atheist, I'm annoyed with dogmatic condescending atheists. Just goes to prove that people are the same, regardless of what they do or don't believe.
