Quote:
Originally Posted by Armistead
I know many believers will say where does morality or conscious come from since we can't find it in our brains. It's obvious early man had no morals, they killed like animals without guilt to survive. Over time they evolved and learned to survive and build social structures. Simply, morality is a social system and our conscious is how our brain responds to it.
I think the reasons it stop making sense to me is because sincerity and logic don't play a part, you have to choose the right religion or savior or be doomed. I think how the millions of Jews Hitler killed that didn't accept Christ as the messiah, based on fairly good reason if you're a Jew. Yet, they loved God. I can imagine suffering in a concentration camp faith was all they had and the hope of death. I'm sure they prayed to the God they loved. Yet, when they die, they found the God they love worse than Hitler. It would be the same with all religions where culture indoctrinates and people follow. Whatever religion is right, it excludes the masses to hell.
Who wouldn't wish God to be true, eternal life in bliss to be true? I've had several loved ones die, would love to see mom again. But, I see no evidence that it is. If God is true he's either a tyrant and it comes down to the luck of which religion is right, all religions are right or he's nothing like any religion proclaims.
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Morals you already see in little children that voluntarily share with each other (or steal
), try to give solace to the other when seeing another child crying, knowing that who found somethign first cannot made to give it up without setting up a fight. We see in some apes, mammals and birds both altruistic motives, social cooperation, and also the cleverness of how to exploit the other and mislead him. I think that is where morals come from: people formed communities, and where there are communbities, there are do'S and don'Ts. The balance between both is a question of collective and individual experience. When the individual sees a given method working well for his interest, it will support it. People take altruistic action into account when in the long run it pays off for them as well.
As I said, biologists report according behaviour patterns form their observations of several apes, birds, and mammals.
I think morals is a lot about group interaction and coordination of single interests in groups. Morals mean to have a choice between complying and disobeying with these rules. For that choice, a certain amount of intelligence and self-awareness and identity concept is necessary. Where these are not given, there is no moral behaviour possible, only preset instincts and genetically encoded behavior programs.
Terrence Malick said in his beautiful movie
The Tree Of Life that there is the choice between the path of nature, and the path of mercy. And there is the scene with the dinosaur that sees another, ill one lying on the ground, a smaller creature. And at the last moment before trampling on it and killing it, the bigger dino hesitates, stops, looks closer, then slowly moves his feet back, and turns and goes away. You can make of this any interpretation you want. If you are in the path of mercy crowd, you may interpret it as compassion maybe. If you are with the opath of nature crowd, you may see it as instinct reaction, or realisation that the small dino is no threat.
Anyhow, both views are legit. So maybe, it all is just a dance of words.