I personally do not murder people to avoid jail. Murder is a sin, born of self-righteous anger. I make every effort to live a life of charity, following the example of our Lord. For criminal, however, it is much easier to take the wallet of a dead man than from a living one. I imagine for some petty criminals, threat of more severe punishment deters more serious crimes. But a criminal psychologist would know more than me about that.
Wally, you say that one can have motivations other than cost/benefit. From a purely materialistic perspective, what possible motivation could you have to choose rightly independent of the desire for personal gain or to avoid physical harm and/or psychological pain? I know some consider conscience an evolved moral sense. To me, that stops short of solving the problem and by doing so undermines the very concept of morality, because it replaces moral deliberation with animal instinct.
Ryanology, I am certain you can brainlessly quote many divine promises for the righteous and threats of punishment for the wicked. You insist on using the same wooden approach for interpreting the Holy Scriptures as the fundamentalists you revile. As such, your critique does not touch my explanation. I invite you to question your literalism so that you may hear the Lord’s love reaching out to you from within the Word.
DT, until you stop trying to shoe-horn God into your childish concept of a old bearded tyrannt, you too will miss out on the Lord's message of Love.
Wally, you say that one can have motivations other than cost/benefit. From a purely materialistic perspective, what possible motivation could you have to choose rightly independent of the desire for personal gain or to avoid physical harm and/or psychological pain? I know some consider conscience an evolved moral sense. To me, that stops short of solving the problem and by doing so undermines the very concept of morality, because it replaces moral deliberation with animal instinct.
Ryanology, I am certain you can brainlessly quote many divine promises for the righteous and threats of punishment for the wicked. You insist on using the same wooden approach for interpreting the Holy Scriptures as the fundamentalists you revile. As such, your critique does not touch my explanation. I invite you to question your literalism so that you may hear the Lord’s love reaching out to you from within the Word.
DT, until you stop trying to shoe-horn God into your childish concept of a old bearded tyrannt, you too will miss out on the Lord's message of Love.
