A leap of faith will take you from one to the other assumption, but the true answer will eventually be reached by the accumulation of objective evidence.
Human beings,have the obligation to discover the law by diligent reasoning and weave it into the routine of their daily lives.
Secular philosophers seems to be different from theologians but they are not, in moral reasoning they tend to view natural law as a set of principles so powerful as to be self-evident to any rational person, whatever the ultimate origin.
Ethics is a code of principles. The codes whether judged by outsiders as good or evil, play an important role in determining which cultures flourish, and which decline.
For Christianity, people know there is an unseen sentient power guiding their lives. But scientist, reject certain propositions in favor of others in strict conformity to fact-based logic. The idea of God, has the capacity to explain everything not just measurable phenomena, personally felt and subliminally sensed. The idea of God is concerned with more than the material world given us to explore. Where do the laws of nature come from if not a power higher than the laws themselves? Why is there something rather than nothing?
All things are permitted when there is no ruling hand of God, and freedom turns to misery.
Quintessential Enlightenment organization should be "to improve the knowledge of natural things, and all useful arts..."
The new Darwinism, the full, stupendous complexity of modern organism could not have been created by blind chance alone.
Epigenetic rules became indoctrinability became an instinct.
Ethical and religious beliefs are created from the bottom up, from people to their culture. We have learned a great deal about ourselves and the world in which we live, but need a great deal more to be fully wise. People need more than reason. Sacred symbols infiltrate the very bones of culture. They will take centuries to replace, if ever.
Human beings, are independent moral agents with a wholly free will capable of obeying or breaking moral law.
"Act only on that maxim through which you wish also it become a universal law" Nature, is a system of cause and effect, while moral choice is a matter of free will, there is no cause and effect.
The individual is seen as a predisposed biologically to make certain choices. By cultural evolution some of the choices are hardened into precepts, then laws, an if the predisposition or coercion is strong enough, a belief in the command of God or the natural order of the universe.
It recognizes that the strength of commitment can wane as result of new knowledge and experience, with the result that certain rules may be desacralized, old laws rescinded, and behavior that was once prohibited freed.
Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.
Religions have a life cycle. At the core of each religion is a creation myth, which explains how the world began and how the chosen people arrived to its center. There is mystery.
Anything will serve, as long as it gives the individual meaning and somehow stretches into eternity that swift passage of the mind and spirit lamented by St augustine as the short day of time.
Resemblance between animal submissive behavior on the one hand and human obeisance to religious and civil authority on the other. In religion there is ritual and prayer to contact the supreme being directly, consolation from coreligionists to soften otherwise unbearable grief, explanations and the oceanic sense of communion with the larger whole that otherwise surpasses understanding.
Happiness is to find a godhead, or to enter the wholeness of Nature, or otherwise to grasp and hold on to something ineffable, beautiful, and eternal.
Human beings,have the obligation to discover the law by diligent reasoning and weave it into the routine of their daily lives.
Secular philosophers seems to be different from theologians but they are not, in moral reasoning they tend to view natural law as a set of principles so powerful as to be self-evident to any rational person, whatever the ultimate origin.
Ethics is a code of principles. The codes whether judged by outsiders as good or evil, play an important role in determining which cultures flourish, and which decline.
- By exploring the biological roots of moral behavior, and explaining their material origins and biases, we should be able to fashion a wiser and more enduring ethical consensus than has gone before.
For Christianity, people know there is an unseen sentient power guiding their lives. But scientist, reject certain propositions in favor of others in strict conformity to fact-based logic. The idea of God, has the capacity to explain everything not just measurable phenomena, personally felt and subliminally sensed. The idea of God is concerned with more than the material world given us to explore. Where do the laws of nature come from if not a power higher than the laws themselves? Why is there something rather than nothing?
All things are permitted when there is no ruling hand of God, and freedom turns to misery.
Quintessential Enlightenment organization should be "to improve the knowledge of natural things, and all useful arts..."
The new Darwinism, the full, stupendous complexity of modern organism could not have been created by blind chance alone.
- Treat this world as if there is none other.
- Integrated self.
- Character is the endurance source of virtue. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It is not obedience to authority, it is not piety.
Epigenetic rules became indoctrinability became an instinct.
Ethical and religious beliefs are created from the bottom up, from people to their culture. We have learned a great deal about ourselves and the world in which we live, but need a great deal more to be fully wise. People need more than reason. Sacred symbols infiltrate the very bones of culture. They will take centuries to replace, if ever.
Human beings, are independent moral agents with a wholly free will capable of obeying or breaking moral law.
"Act only on that maxim through which you wish also it become a universal law" Nature, is a system of cause and effect, while moral choice is a matter of free will, there is no cause and effect.
The individual is seen as a predisposed biologically to make certain choices. By cultural evolution some of the choices are hardened into precepts, then laws, an if the predisposition or coercion is strong enough, a belief in the command of God or the natural order of the universe.
It recognizes that the strength of commitment can wane as result of new knowledge and experience, with the result that certain rules may be desacralized, old laws rescinded, and behavior that was once prohibited freed.
Change will come slowly, across generations, because old beliefs die hard even when demonstrably false.
Religions have a life cycle. At the core of each religion is a creation myth, which explains how the world began and how the chosen people arrived to its center. There is mystery.
Anything will serve, as long as it gives the individual meaning and somehow stretches into eternity that swift passage of the mind and spirit lamented by St augustine as the short day of time.
Resemblance between animal submissive behavior on the one hand and human obeisance to religious and civil authority on the other. In religion there is ritual and prayer to contact the supreme being directly, consolation from coreligionists to soften otherwise unbearable grief, explanations and the oceanic sense of communion with the larger whole that otherwise surpasses understanding.
Happiness is to find a godhead, or to enter the wholeness of Nature, or otherwise to grasp and hold on to something ineffable, beautiful, and eternal.