20th November 2012
“The most common defence one hears for religious faith is not that there's so much evidence that God exists, but that religion offers the only basis for a universal morality. Moderates and fundamentalists seem to agree on this point. Of course, it makes no sense as a defence of faith because even if it were true, it wouldn't suggest that God exists.”
November 20th, 2012 at 13:39
Having a cohesive society where we benefit each other is the basis of morality. The rest is just fairy tales about where the sun goes at night.
November 20th, 2012 at 20:10
Actually, electra, the cohesive society evolves out of the simple response strategy of tit-for-tat, when the initiator makes a positive first move. All else flows from simple game theory.
In morality, everything beyond that is rationalization. As to the myths by which we explain the rationalizations to non-rational actors, that fits your description.
November 20th, 2012 at 22:25
Universal morality? The only basis? The history of natural law, its many permutations, and its continued advance even by the likes of Sam Harris tells us faith’s basis is little more than an anecdotal reference to a far more complex subject.