(October 6, 2010 at 6:55 am)EvidenceVsFaith Wrote: Why the hell should survivability matter at all for morality?
Death is painless, life isn't. Morality is about reducing suffering and increasing pleasure as far as I'm concerned. The priority being on reducing suffering. It's only worth surviving if life is overall pleasurable for ourselves or others.
Human beings are essentially self interested animals. Many if not all moral rules are related to individual and/or group survival as they are reciprocal.
EG in our society:
Not killing and eating each other
Not raping
Not stealing others' property and food
Incest taboos
Not drunk driving
The concepts of compassion and charity have definite survival values.They mean we may survive when we have no food are,sick,injured or old.
Quote:If all life was absolutely torturous overall, surviving wouldn't be morally important.
Non sequitor.The purpose of life is itself. The most powerful drives we have are to survive and reproduce. Whether life is pleasant or horrible is irrelevant. Until only about two hundred years ago,life for most humans on the planet was " nasty,brutish and short"*. Still is for many millions.
* Thomas Hobbes; 'Leviathan'
