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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: briskit who wrote (16189)	2/1/2004 4:05:42 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

"But this sense of right and wrong, accompanied by a sense of guilt.....how did it ever first get experienced? Suddenly without having this sense, somebody out of the blue experienced something as "wrong," not just painful or having negative consequences that they wish they'd avoided. We judge our actions according to assessment criteria which are culturally and individually learned. Our basic referent is self interest, but this, of course, is a judgment which obtains from a complexity of variables. Judgment of actions may be considered from a utility perspective or from a moral perspective (a perspective of right/wrong related to social judgments). Conscience is simply a judgment which has been internalized. How one feels (guilt, elation, etc.) about an action depends from the assessment which one has made based on value judgments learned. There are no intrinsic assessments of behaviour common to humanity and not tempered by culture, teaching, and learned response. For instance, a priest from, say, a Mayan culture could cut out the heart of a living sacrificial victim and feel (along with most members of the tribe) elation and a sense of being sanctified. You and I would likely feel a social guilt and a "moral" repugnance. During the War many people murdered millions of Jews and felt a sense of moral rectitude. Some of them even felt "Godly". The examples are infinite... Now these facts are undeniable, and it is intellectually evasive to deny or to evade what is undeniable. The "feeling" of right or wrong stems from the "assessment" of right or wrong. The assessment is not immanent but is learned. Where these assessments are informed by instinctual, biological, and evolutionary influences...such influences are understood, or at the least acknowledged for what they are. The assessment of right and wrong does not come "out of the blue". It comes from reflection based on values which are learned. All of us are capable of experiencing the same event while FEELING a different sense of probity or sin. When the Jew dies, a particular Muslim murderer may feel closer to God and feel the virtue of a "Godly" act. Likewise, from the other side; and similarly for all sides and relative perspectives. So there is no mystery in "conscience". Some will vomit at a death and others will cheer. Some will feel guilt and shame; some will feel virtuous and Holy. Babies have no "conscience". They learn what is "right" and "wrong" and (in conjunction with evolutionary biological drives) they learn how to "feel" about certain actions and events. A baby does not feel shame for being seen naked. She may learn to feel shame later; and later yet she may learn to enjoy nudity and nude resorts. The shame and guilt were not immanent or Absloute--they were based on assessments and value judgments. "But I wonder if we are significantly advanced when compared to the actual character and nature of God." If God were a fact rather than a gratuitous assumption we could be as advanced or as retarded as we imagined ourselves to be. What do you imagine when you imagine the "character" of God? What does HE hate: short people, escargot, people who pick their nose? Does He hate Muslims, Jews, Blacks, or Whites? Does he love country music? Is rock and roll a sin? Will he bet on the game today, or is betting a SIN? Have a good day and enjoy the game. I hope your tickets win. I don't buy them, however: A matter of conscience.