(December 23, 2019 at 10:04 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(December 23, 2019 at 9:40 pm)Brian37 Wrote: But in terms of logic, which if you would read my prior post, makes no logical sense.
On another thread we were talking about empathy, and it got me to thinking. (I was at the supermarket and needed something to think about.)
Maybe Golden Rule type empathy isn't enough. Like "I don't want to get poked in the eye so I won't poke you in the eye" doesn't actually require that I know anything about your feeling. It only needs me to know MY feeling, and then have the self-discipline not to do that thing.
Real empathy might mean that we understand something of that other person's lifeworld, even if it is unlike our own. Then it's likely that their choices would be revealed as extremely logical. At that point it might be less easy to pass judgment.
(December 23, 2019 at 10:00 pm)Brian37 Wrote: It is a matter to me, our species willing to question social norms and be willing to give up on bad data.
Have you read anything by the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips? He questions the social norm that logic is important in life. Have you taken the time to question this one?
I think there are plenty of atheists, not just me, but plenty on this site, who have been through our own trauma. I know I have. Watching my late mother take her last breath in the nursing home was no picnic. Nobody goes through the exact same nanosecond to nanosecond cloned carbon copy life. But all humans go through the same experiences of love, happiness, sadness, stress, and trauma, to different degrees. There is no human who has a perfectly stress free life where everything is a hollywood movie.
Nobody, certainly not I, are seeking to kick puppies or barbecue kittens. But facts do matter, and so does logic. If we always clung to the past, you wouldn't be typing your post here.
But if you want me to use a metaphor Dorothy was the skeptic and leader in the Wizard Of Oz.
