RE: Subjective Morality?
October 20, 2018 at 8:24 am
(This post was last modified: October 20, 2018 at 8:28 am by pgrimes15.)
Thought it was worth reproducing an old post from TheRocketSurgeon that really nailed this issue.
"Several have already answered you on this, but it's quite clear that "normal" (as in, non-sociopathic, non-malfunctioning) people evolved as a social species, and the concept of guilt and a desire to heal rifts within our tribes was a massive evolutionary advantage. It's good that you feel bad when you harm someone; that's what makes you good at being a human being! Indeed, I tend to base my evaluation of others on two factors: intellectual honesty (ability to face hard truths and change their minds when called for) and empathy for others.
"Religion, unfortunately, has learned over time how to hijack that brain architecture, like a virus latching onto your DNA, and imprints onto our "social programming" section an additional number of things to feel guilty about: "thought crimes". It then uses that sense of added guilt to badger and bludgeon you into compliance and conformity. This may even have had evolutionary advantages, in the sense that a group religion caused the tribe to have a cohesive identity and purpose, giving that tribe survival benefits over their less-organized rivals. Unfortunately, like many of our hunter-gatherer adaptations (such as our tendency to love sugar and store fat), this has become overblown and harmful in the modern world, with so many people crowded together and almost no humans living in tribes anymore. But to compensate for the trend, religion got better at the guilt-and-shame game.
This (along with a lot of other coding in the Christian faith "brain virus" that is self-defensive, like teaching us to doubt our own reason) makes deconversion difficult and often emotionally painful. Worse, preachers have learned to present atheists as immoral and/or amoral, meaning that if you (like 99% of people) are emotional and able to show empathy, you tend to think, "well I don't want to be an atheist, I'm a good person!"
In closing, I'll just leave you to ponder the words of one of my favorite sci-fi authors:
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just stupid.)" - Robert A. Heinlein."
"Several have already answered you on this, but it's quite clear that "normal" (as in, non-sociopathic, non-malfunctioning) people evolved as a social species, and the concept of guilt and a desire to heal rifts within our tribes was a massive evolutionary advantage. It's good that you feel bad when you harm someone; that's what makes you good at being a human being! Indeed, I tend to base my evaluation of others on two factors: intellectual honesty (ability to face hard truths and change their minds when called for) and empathy for others.
"Religion, unfortunately, has learned over time how to hijack that brain architecture, like a virus latching onto your DNA, and imprints onto our "social programming" section an additional number of things to feel guilty about: "thought crimes". It then uses that sense of added guilt to badger and bludgeon you into compliance and conformity. This may even have had evolutionary advantages, in the sense that a group religion caused the tribe to have a cohesive identity and purpose, giving that tribe survival benefits over their less-organized rivals. Unfortunately, like many of our hunter-gatherer adaptations (such as our tendency to love sugar and store fat), this has become overblown and harmful in the modern world, with so many people crowded together and almost no humans living in tribes anymore. But to compensate for the trend, religion got better at the guilt-and-shame game.
This (along with a lot of other coding in the Christian faith "brain virus" that is self-defensive, like teaching us to doubt our own reason) makes deconversion difficult and often emotionally painful. Worse, preachers have learned to present atheists as immoral and/or amoral, meaning that if you (like 99% of people) are emotional and able to show empathy, you tend to think, "well I don't want to be an atheist, I'm a good person!"
In closing, I'll just leave you to ponder the words of one of my favorite sci-fi authors:
"Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just stupid.)" - Robert A. Heinlein."
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Edward Gibbon
