RE: How to easily defeat any argument for God
August 27, 2019 at 11:58 am
(This post was last modified: August 27, 2019 at 12:48 pm by Acrobat.)
(August 27, 2019 at 11:34 am)Simon Moon Wrote: No, human brains are pattern seeking, agency detecting, processors. This is part of our survival mechanisms. It is better for survival to have false positives (detecting a predator when there isn't one), than false negatives. It is this strong tendency to find patterns and agency where there isn't any, that is being leveraged to acquire, your so called 'teleological perception'.
Detecting predators that aren't there is, is a result of negatively bias. We're no more likely to interpret the rustling of the leaves to neutral non-threatening animals, than we would the wind. But we're more likely to interpret it as a threatening animal, than the wind or a non-threatening animal. This is where the survival benefits arises from, not from some preference for neutral beings, over non-beings. It's not particular to detecting agents, but is particular to detecting threats over non-threats, rather than agents over non-agents, and that's where the survival value comes from.
And detecting the actual wind as the cause of the rustling of the leave, is as much "pattern recognition" as any other detection here.
But regardless of whether you think the teleological perceptions when it comes to morality are false, it is the foundation for why we see morality as objective. Why we don't see right and wrong as matter of social norms, or personal opinions, but as matters of truth. Why not just myself, but you who also cling to the objectiveness of morality, can't shake it off. If the perception is false, you're as much a product of the disease here as anyone else.
Quote:So, you are trying to support your assertion that we all teleologically detect a god, with children's undeveloped brains? The same children that have imaginary friends? Believe there are monsters in the closet or under the bed? You might want rethink your examples.
You do understand, that there are and have been cultures and tribes all over the world, with no god beliefs, right? The Pirahã are one example.
I'm not making any argument for God, because no such argument can be made. I'm merely making an argument that, the foundation of morality, that we ought to do good, be good, do whats best for wellbeing etc.... are teleological. It's the basis for why morality is objective, and is recognized as objective by human creatures, rather than as social norms, or individual preferences
I'm merely making a case for the nature of morality, that better explains all the unusual particularities of it, than the barely coherent non-sense often sold here.