Check out Edman Goodrich’s art on ”the source of our morality.” He says:
I don’t often create politically or religiously-charged work, but after reading of the sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, I felt compelled to do so. While it’s true that the violence in the area can be attributed to a wide variety of factors in addition to religious differences, the “morality” espoused by both groups only continues to fuel the conflict, as well as create a god-ordered incentive to kill and maim each other.
Here it is:
I don’t know what the source of morality is but religion is clearly not a source.
Hi Olaf,
Just to give some clarification, the reason I titled it “The Source of Our Morality” is because it’s an idea propagated frequently by the religious, as in: “Our god/holy book is the source of our morality.”
Cool picture, bro.
Im with Sam Harris on morality. It’s a biologic adaptation that allows for animals to function in social groups. Like any adaptation, it mutates and adapts to new environments. Our intelligence has created an unique environment that biologic life never had to deal with before. The large variety of culture and morality reminds me of the Cambrian explosion. We have a massive quantity of different moralities because it’s brand new in terms of evolutionary time spans. But those moralities are being selected for very quickly. Entire societies are being gobbled up by more successful moral structures.
In the end, natural selection is going to decide which morality will be dominant. The group that can pass on its genes (memes) more successfully than the others will win. The unique thing about culture is that it can be passed on outside of the normal transfer of heredity.
It’s a very interesting time to be alive. I’m lad I get to see it.
Modern morality: When in Rome, do as the Romans do, yet ancient.
Personally, I define morality as just an extension of empathy. We don’t want to see others suffer because we don’t want to suffer. Simply, we don’t murder because we don’t want to be murdered. We don’t steal because we don’t want to be stolen from. We turn in a found wallet because we would want our lost wallet turned in. File that under “Duh” —it has nothing to do with any divine being’s influence. Humans have the ability to empathize (those who aren’t sociopaths, anyway), and our sense of right/wrong is clearly influenced by that.
Pingback: The Source of Our Morality - Science and Religion Today
Here is a lovely example of the wonderful morals which the peaceful and gentle religion of Islam is regularly importing to my mostly atheist/agnostic country on a regular basis. We never had these kinds of morals before this particular source of morals arrived. I’m sure you can imagine how grateful we all are.
That art is so badass.