[MD] MOQ and the Future: An Inquiry into Usefulness

[plattholden at gmail.com]

On 3 Nov 2009 at 21:14, markhsmit wrote:

> 
> On Nov 3, 2009, at 5:49:12 AM, plattholden at gmail.com wrote:
> The future impact of the MOQ will be acceptance of a universal moral
> code based on reason instead of current mishmash of arbitrary social
> conventions.
> 
> Platt 
> Hi Platt,
> Those are lofty goals indeed, especially if such reason is intended for a 
> utopian existence.  My worry is the use of such a philosophy would in effect
> dictate control.  At the present state of human mind development, I often
> see the term, reason, as justification.  For example in the phrase "The reason
> behind my doing this is:...

You are right to worry. Reason has been used to justify horrible 
dictatorships. One only need look at Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and 
Cuba for current examples. As Ben Franklin said: "So convenient a 
thing it is be a rational creature, since it enables us to find a reason for 
everything one has a mind to do."

> I still find it hard to imagine reason separating itself from the psycho-emotional.
> This may indeed be possible once the mind has evolved.  My guess is that
> we still have a way to go.  However, that is not to say that reason could not
> experience a jump of some kind or another.  As it stands, for me reason
> is still tightly linked to the basic emotions, deadly sins if you will.

Agree. We have a long way to go. There's some hope, however, in the
general historical trend from rule by biological force to rule by consent of 
the governed with rational protections of individual rights -- freedom of 
speech, freedom of religion, trial by jury, property ownership, etc.

I also see some hope in the connection between the rational MOQ and 
the generally accepted morality of caring, compassion and consideration 
of others represented by Christianity and Buddhism. Both stem from the 
same belief  -- the world as a moral order -- the former derived from a 
rational inquiry into the phenomenon of direct everyday experience, the 
latter based on mystic revelation.  

If there comes a day when large numbers of people share the premise 
of a morally ordered universe, there may arrive a tipping point of 
enlightenment whereby humans become "rationally spiritual." There are 
a number of scientists and other rational thinkers today who have 
already attained that level. Others are on that level, too, only they don't 
know it yet. (I'm thinking of some women who exhibit an extraordinary  
harmony of sense and sensitivity.)

Time will tell. 

Regards,
Platt