What is more important for the future well-being of humankind: Faith or Reason?

[strikeviperMKII]

that makes them subjective...

Yes, it does. That doesn't mean you should ignore them.

 

[jarofthoughts]

Yes, but the Golden Rule is not motivated by self-interest. It's motivation comes from genuine empathy.

What is genuine empathy?

I think it is motivated by genuine response to God's love. The materialists are going to come back and say that empathy is a hard-wired, if sub-conscious, expression of the survival instinct.

Got it in one.

Unless of course you want to argue that South-American Vampire Bats also respond to God's love... :sarcastic

 

[jarofthoughts]

No, that would never work. :no:

That's more like the Law of the Jungle than the Golden Rule.

From Wikipedia:
The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, an ethical code, or a morality, that essentially states either of the following:
1. One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (positive form).
2.One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (negative/prohibitive form, also called the Silver Rule).

So that IS the Golden Rule.
Short and simple.

 

[lunamoth]

Unless of course you want to argue that South-American Vampire Bats also respond to God's love... :sarcastic

Why not?

 

[tothen]

great thread. I have to go with reason.

 

[jarofthoughts]

Why not?

Right.

Could we perhaps first establish whether there is a god or not, preferably with some solid evidence, before we go off on a tangent and start wild speculations about what effects he/she might have on the world?

 

[Midnight Pete]

From Wikipedia:
The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, an ethical code, or a morality, that essentially states either of the following:
1. One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (positive form).
2.One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (negative/prohibitive form, also called the Silver Rule).

So that IS the Golden Rule.
Short and simple.

Beautiful in its simplicity and its univerality.

 

[lunamoth]

Right.

Could we perhaps first establish whether there is a god or not, preferably with some solid evidence, before we go off on a tangent and start wild speculations about what effects he/she might have on the world?

Or we could start with why we care about the future well-being of humankind.

 

[waitasec]

Yes, it does. That doesn't mean you should ignore them.

truth doesn't even acknowledge emotions much less ignore them

wold one rather be realistic or delusional?

 

[Penumbra]

The golden rule, when taken in a reasonable way, works for masochists as well.

There are far more potent examples to use than that one.

 

[strikeviperMKII]

truth doesn't even acknowledge emotions much less ignore them

wold one rather be realistic or delusional?

One man's delusion is another man's reality.

 

[waitasec]

One man's delusion is another man's reality.

that is true if truth were subjective...

 

[strikeviperMKII]

that is true if truth were subjective...

Truth is not subjective. What we think is true, however, is very much subjective.
We can never know the former. We only have the latter.

 

[waitasec]

Truth is not subjective. What we think is true, however, is very much subjective.
We can never know the former. We only have the latter.

i couldn't agree with you more

 

[Magic Man]

Yes, but the Golden Rule is not motivated by self-interest. It's motivation comes from genuine empathy.

You can make its case based purely on self-interest. If I treat others as I'd want to be treated, the chances are higher I'll get treated how I want to. If you're polite to someone in a store, you have a much better chance of them being polite to you. So, it's in your best interest to be polite to them. If you murder someone, you run the real risk of their friends and family coming after you, or failing that, of going to jail. It's in your best interest to not murder them.

 

[PolyHedral]

Truth is not subjective. What we think is true, however, is very much subjective.
We can never know the former. We only have the latter.

 

[Jeremiah]

Doubt for doubt's sake leads to nothing, nothing but a masturbatory overuse of the intellect.

An over use of the intellect? There is no such thing. In fact humans are in desperate need of greater use of intelligence. Ignorance and stupidity is one of the most destructive natural forces opposing humans and the only way to fix it is by intelligence.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous then sincere ingorance and conscientious stupidity.
Shakespeare wrote:
For sweetest thing turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse then weeds.

As the chief moral guardian of the community, the church must implore men to be good and well-intentioned and must extol the virtues kindheartedness and conscientiousness. But somewhere along the way the church must remind men that devoid of intelligence, goodness and conscientiousness will become brutal forces leading to shameful crucifixions. Never must the Church tire of reminding men that they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent.

Must now we not admit that the church has often overlooked this moral demand for enlightenment? At times it has talked as though ingorance were a virtue and intelligence a crime. Through its obscurantism, closed-mindedness and obstinacy to new truth, the church has often unconsciously encouraged it worshipers to look askance upon intelligence.

But if we are to call ourselves Christians, we had better avoid intellectual and moral blindness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

[Jeremiah]

yes, read outhouse's comments for further information on the superiority of science. We are to follow and obey and not question it.

Like all great religions

Scientific facts are challenged and amended all the time.

 

[Jeremiah]

Reason doesn't care about helping other people. It's self-interest.

The only thing reason cares about is comprehending. It is the ego the says, "Me, me, me." And it is not "faith" that makes us care about helping others, it is compassion that makes us do that. An emotion that humans are born with (but yet no human is born with faith in God).

Reason is not separate from emotion, it is fully capable of interacting, working with and even being influenced by emotions.

 

[Revoltingest]

When yer kid wants to do something stupid, do you ask them to...
1) Give me a good "reason"....or
2) Give me a good "faith".
Yeah, I thought so.