Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 04:27:51 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> To: "Neal E. Westfall" <nwestfal@directvinternet.com> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why did evolution fail? Message-ID: <20020907012751.GA16913@hades.hell.gr> In-Reply-To: <20020906174735.C44831-100000@Tolstoy.home.lan> References: <20020907001514.GA15779@hades.hell.gr> <20020906174735.C44831-100000@Tolstoy.home.lan>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
In message: <20020906174735.C44831-100000@Tolstoy.home.lan>
"Neal E. Westfall" <nwestfal@directvinternet.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Sep 2002, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
> > On 2002-09-06 10:02 +0000, Neal E. Westfall wrote:
> > > What is *your* rationale for opposing slavery? I'll tell you mine.
> > > I am grateful to God for having mercy on me as a sinner. As such, I
> > > seek to glorify God by emulating His compassion that He had on me.
> >
> > Why do you need to have `God', or anything else that can take its
> > place in your systems of beliefs, to set an example? Can't you, as an
> > individual, a human being respect and value others without someone
> > showing you ``the way''?
>
> So let me get this straight. You think you are so self-righteous
> that you think you are not in need of an objective standard of right
> and wrong, and that you just naturally do what is right (right according
> to who?) in any given situation?
No, I am not self-righteous. I do try, not to do things to others
that I wouldn't want them to do to me. This is the only thing that
one needs to aim to do, when questions like right and wrong pop up.
This is the only thing that is needed for an infinite amount of people
to be able to live together without having to look up to supernatural
beings and entities, in order to be kind to each other.
To return to the original question, making another human a slave is
not something that I would like another human doing to me. This is
then, by my own standards, as you called them, wrong.
> How can you even define "respect" and "value others" without
> appealing to some objective standard that gives such lofty goals
> meaning?
One person can not define or know an `objective standard' alone. The
standard becomes manifest when many persons try to understand what is
best for all of them and each individual separately.
> Without objective standards, you have no right to expect such
> respect from anyone. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote, "If there is no God,
> all is permissable." Please refute.
I am not sure that there is a need for a god or other supernatural
entity for humans to socialise and treat each other well. If they do
try hard to avoid intentionally hurting each other, and strive both as
individuals and as a team to catter for the needs both of their
individuals selfs and the team as a whole, is there really a need for
something like this?
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020907012751.GA16913>