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Originally Posted by Chris Noble  I am reacting to your and OpenMind's assertion that your particualr metaphysical beliefs are a necessary requirement for morality.
You share this arrogant claim with fundamentalist Christians. |
I am not religious and I hold no fundamentalist viewpoint. If the evidence, is replicated by other researchers in future that people told they are 'just a pack of neurons' or similar are more inclined to cheat, well let us follow the evidence wherever it leads.
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Basic principles such as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" predate all of these beliefs and are independent from any supernatural belief.
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I am not convinced these are 'independent from supernatural belief' (whether real or not). Why, should one continue to follow a traditional belief if one is just a pack of neurons?
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Your caricature of evil physicalism is exactly the same as they way fundamentalist Christians caricature "Darwinism". The only thing you forgot was to claim that physicalists eat babies and that physicalisms lead to Nazism.
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What if you are right and computers can be made conscious, is it wrong to kill computers too? In physicalism why is killing a baby more wrong than killing a computer program? Also what is definitely morally wrong in physicalism?
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It is far better for children to learn morals that are developed independently from supernatural entities such as Santa Claus, God or Karma.
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I tend to agree, I would tell them to listen to their 'conscience' not just to rationalize what is right or wrong (I doubt it can be rationalized from a 'pack of neurons' ) ... but unlike you I am not convinced consciousness or conscience is a brain function that evolved via physical natural selection, I seriously consider the probability mind and brain are not the same and something is evolving outside our physical brains, outside our physical reality too.