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Old 11-29-2010, 10:12 PM
 
Location: OKC
5,421 posts, read 6,509,454 times
Reputation: 1775

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bideshi View Post
Without God there is no morality. Each individual decides for himself what is right or wrong. Individuals will violently disagree. Chaos is assured.
That kind of happens with God, too.
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Old 11-29-2010, 10:42 PM
 
Location: Victoria, BC.
33,567 posts, read 37,179,584 times
Reputation: 14021
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bideshi View Post
Without God there is no morality. Each individual decides for himself what is right or wrong. Individuals will violently disagree. Chaos is assured.
I guess God's morality is a failure then...Prison statistics pretty much prove that.
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Old 11-29-2010, 10:42 PM
 
Location: Kent, Ohio
3,429 posts, read 2,737,202 times
Reputation: 1667
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bideshi View Post
Without God there is no morality. Each individual decides for himself what is right or wrong. Individuals will violently disagree. Chaos is assured.
It's interesting that you mention chaos. I know you just mean "disorder" or "pure randomness" but if you understood the mathematical concept of chaos, you would understand that chaos is the ultimate source of all order in the universe.

From a chaotic point of view, each human being is an interconnected element, and our individual decisions collectively lead to vast, intricate, larger-scale patterns of behavior. These patterns can become highly stable - even "structural" in some basic sense. I would suggest that "morality" can be understood from this perspective.

"Moral codes" are the descriptive rules we used to understand certain patterns of human behavior. To the extent that we "feel" these patterns (as opposed to merely devising more academic system of categorization), we feel them as our "moral sense" or intuitions. In this way, the patterns are internalized, and there is a sense in which they have "top-down" influence. In other words, the patterns emerge from the bottom up, but then take on a "life of their own," so to speak, as they begin to influence the individual elements from which they originally emerged.

In other words, morality is not a rigid structure or set of rules; rather, morality is more like an organism - a self-organizing system that grows and evolves. Within such a system, you will always have some unpredictable elements - some disorder and "bad" behavior - but you will also have room for creativity and growth.

If this is right, then morality does not require an intelligent creator God to design the system, but, on the other hand, no particular subset of individuals can design it either (tho many will certainly try). The sum of the moral patterns might always be somewhat beyond the full understanding of any individual, but science may be able to approach a reasonably workable understanding (tho without perfect predictability).
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Old 11-29-2010, 10:58 PM
 
Location: Richland, Washington
4,904 posts, read 6,020,015 times
Reputation: 3533
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bideshi View Post
Without God there is no morality. Each individual decides for himself what is right or wrong. Individuals will violently disagree. Chaos is assured.
This sort of spouting nonsense is what gets believers stereotyped as being braying ignoramouses.
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Old 11-30-2010, 01:29 AM
 
Location: Tujunga
421 posts, read 449,173 times
Reputation: 143
Quote:
Originally Posted by KCfromNC View Post
So basically you're complaining that non-theistic morality is just a set of rules that society agrees on while ignoring that religion-based morality is exactly the same thing, just with "because I say god says so" tacked on to the end of it. That's why we don't keep slaves or force rapists to marry their attackers or kill people who work on Saturday anymore. It's pretty obvious you're hoping we'll pretend these problems with religious morality don't exist, but unless you can address them you're just complaining that non-believers don't add the "since god says so" to the rules.
To my understanding of theistic morality sees right and wrong defined by an all powerful God, who is, by definition good, and can thus define good and bad. Thus a moral code can be defined in a way which is separate from human beings, rationality, or self interest. If you believe in God or not doesn't really matter to the internal logic of the argument.

If we move into a time whereas this belief in God, and God's moral code diminishes, then my interest is to where this leaves morality. When I talk of morality in this context I talk about things that are considered to be 'just right' or 'just wrong'. If morality is a set of tactic agreements in a society, then surly the rules just become temporary agreements of convenience?

So is morality then the idea that rape, for example, is currently considered inexpedient by the majority, thus will be frowned upon temporarily? Is it simply about utility, or the summation of the opinion of the ethical views of a given society?
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Old 11-30-2010, 01:33 AM
 
Location: Tujunga
421 posts, read 449,173 times
Reputation: 143
[quote=Arjay51;16816049]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattos_12 View Post

And there are all sorts of different morals. so your claim of a universal moral standard is false, as you just admitted. All the rest of your claims result in the fact that you are just trolling.
So long as there is a 'Christian' type God then there aren't different types of morality. Its rather the point of the question. Without God, does morality just become a matter of view-point, like, if we like apples or not.
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Old 11-30-2010, 01:34 AM
 
16,431 posts, read 22,219,437 times
Reputation: 9628
Quote:
Originally Posted by agnostic soldier View Post
This sort of spouting nonsense is what gets believers stereotyped as being braying ignoramouses.
My,such flattery! I respect your opinion too.
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Old 11-30-2010, 01:38 AM
 
Location: Tujunga
421 posts, read 449,173 times
Reputation: 143
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arjay51 View Post
Too bad that you learned nothing of the workings of the world with those studies. You operate out of self interest and assume (there is that woord again) that everyone else follows your lead. In spite of the constant pointing out to you that you are wrong.

Arguing with a stone wall? No, more like arguing with C34.
Self interest is another argument altogether - although I've found no good arguments against self-interest being the only interest. Sure we could start another thread if you'd like?
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Old 11-30-2010, 01:38 AM
 
16,431 posts, read 22,219,437 times
Reputation: 9628
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boxcar Overkill View Post
That kind of happens with God, too.
Yes, He has the authority to make the rules. It's His universe.
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Old 11-30-2010, 01:43 AM
 
Location: Tujunga
421 posts, read 449,173 times
Reputation: 143
Quote:
Originally Posted by QuixoticHobbit View Post
Which God?
Which God's morals?

The god of The Bible can hardly be called moral, nor a source of any objective unchanging moral code.
The point is more that God as a concept allows for absolute morality as a concept, without which one must look for another source/function of morality.
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