Morality — I put the idea right up there with consciousness in terms of items we don’t understand.
Many religious people are immoral as seen in world history. Some of the most moral people I have ever met are atheists.
War, murder, eating animals, tax evasion, not helping the poor, etc.: I would think that all of us think that such ideas are morally wrong yet we often do these things. It appears to be in our nature as a part of some genetic / epigenetic / societal “original sin”. Also, other creatures do these things — eating other animals is a huge part of animal life. Animals may even do very human-like things such as war.
Hence, I come to this 2015 on-line article by Leslie Allan in 2015. He states:
By the way, his essay is a great read. I highly recommend it.
Perhaps morality has BOTH an subjective and objective quality. In my new upcoming book, A Theology of the Microbiome, (SacraSage Press), I ask the reader to consider reality as a subjective-objective monad (or, a SO-Monad).
From the upcoming book:
One type of thought may be more important than the other at one point of time although both aspects of the SO-Monad continue to exist in and through time. Subjective and objective knowledge may change in importance, and at other times, subjectivity and objectivity knowledge may be of equal importance. Both are always present eternally, moving through time. God is present through all aspects of this SO-Monad via the divine lure through time.
Theology should emphasize God’s love in the appreciation of science. The SO-Monad can be seen as an attribution of this divine love. Thomas Jay Oord states “Thinking of ourselves as being composed of episodes or as a connected series of event-experiences is important for understanding central religious claims about love.”131 As an example, humans and many other animals demonstrate altruistic behavior. It does not matter whether such behavior is considered genetic, epigenetic, spiritual, or a combination of these factors. In fact, it is not at all clear if increased religiosity makes one more altruistic, suggesting that humans often misinterpret the divine lure.132 God’s love should be emphasized over religious fervor when caring for others and for the planet.
The existence of the SO-Monad is a theological argument, and perhaps, a philosophical argument. Needless to say, in our post-modern world, a better understanding of subjectivity is of immense importance. This need for understanding is especially important in the world of theology where religious people (such as me) can get very confused.
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Phi-The-Sci: Equilateral Musings 