[MD] The Moral Landscape

[Platt Holden]

Thanks, Mark. Politically  I'm a small government/individual liberty
conservative. Whether morality begets religion or vice versa I can't
say. But that there exists absolute Truth I have no doubt,
just as there exists absolute Beauty, both of which, as you say,
can  wear many different costumes. Like you, I rant against
Scientism for its intrusion into areas where it has no legitimate
business. It's mighty good in life's bakery department, but as we
all know, or should know, man does not live by bread and cake
alone.

Best,
Platt


On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 6:47 PM, 118 <ununoctiums at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Platt,
> I am interested in what you post.  I think we have a similar outlook (at
> least politically).
>
> In my opinion religion results naturally from morality as a synopsis.
>  Morality without religion is like a book that we cannot figure out the
> subject of.  Religion is the clothing worn by Truth (no not my invention,
> everything I know I read somewhere).  Truth can wear many different
> costumes, and look pretty different on first glance.  I don't want to harp
> on my rant about Scientism, but like I said, Truth gets dressed up in many
> ways.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
> On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 2:21 PM, <plattholden at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Steve and all interested,
> >
> > Today's NYTimes has an interesting article entitled, "Morals Without
> God?"
> > The
> > author, a biologist, writes:
> >
> > "It is impossible to know what morality would be like without religion.
> It
> > would require a visit to a human culture that is not now and never was
> > religious. That such cultures do not exist should give us pause."
> >
> > Some cultures come very close to being "without religion." Their
> > contribution
> > to human well-being is somewhat less than Harris would approve. North
> Korea
> > comes to mind. And looking back at cultures without religion in the 20th
> > century -- "The horror!"  Concentration camps, gulags, the Great Leap
> > Forward --
> > those are just the tip of the human misery from "rational" social
> policies,
> > exceeding by far the suffering caused in the name of religion.
> >
> > The author concludes with this observation:
> >
> > "Any framework we develop to advocate a certain moral outlook is bound to
> > produce its own list of principles, its own prophets, and attract its own
> > devoted followers, so it will soon look like any old religion."
> >
> > A cautionary note lest our approval of Pirsig, Harris or any other
> > "rationalist" becomes a cult.
> >
> > Best,
> > Platt
> >
> > Moq_Discuss mailing list
> > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> > Archives:
> > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> > http://moq.org/md/archives.html
> >
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
>