(June 3, 2013 at 5:28 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: Oh ok, well I am still interested as to how you define what is right and wrong, I understand that what you believe Is right and wrong hasn’t changed much but why do you believe what you believe? Thanks.
Well, I haven't really thought about every moral issue, but most of them either come down to practicality and/or empathy. I think that most of the morals that modern societies retain come down to the concept of protecting each of us from harm to the degree that it's possible, and improving the lot of the society or community as a whole. Humans are social creatures and I think that on some level or other, the approval of our fellow humans makes us feel good. Behavior that increases the general good feeling among the group (without causing harm in other ways) will be promoted, and behavior that decreases that good feeling will be discouraged (unless it's necessary for protecting their well-being).
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
