RE: Theists: how do you account for psychopaths?
May 23, 2018 at 3:10 pm
(This post was last modified: May 23, 2018 at 3:12 pm by Angrboda.)
(May 23, 2018 at 11:09 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(May 23, 2018 at 9:07 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: Morality is more than behaving according to somebody else's idea of what is moral. It means having a conscience. A psychopath who doesn't kill in order to avoid being punished is not being moral. Their acts have the appearance of morality, but not the substance. Just imagine a world where everybody was psychopathic. Where would our morals come from then?
True, but he's not being immoral, either. Though I guess if he were to secretly wish death on people, that would be immoral, but psychopath means you don't have empathy, not that you necessarily like it when people die or suffer.
The capacity to be moral is also the capacity to be immoral, so, no, a psychopath wouldn't have that capacity. To be a moral being is to have the feeling that one has a universal duty to behave in certain ways, as an immediate and direct part of imagining the behavior. A psychopath doesn't have such thoughts. Everything is essentially equal in the eyes of a psychopath.
Is a psychopath not made in the image of God? Is the law not written in their hearts? Do psychopaths have different souls than normal individuals? Isn't God responsible for the nature of our souls?
According to Neo and many traditional Christians, it is the fact of God's moral perfection that is the "cause" of the existence of objective morality. Yet with psychopaths, God's perfection is essentially inert. What does that say about the notion that God's moral perfection is responsible for morals? If God's moral perfection is not the cause of morals, then what part does He play?
I notice you claimed that most laws come from morals, ignoring my question about where such norms, laws, and morals would come from if we all were psychopaths. Apparently you chose not to consider the question. Will you consider it now?