Objective ethics?!

Could we define good and evil without invoking god? Could we define an objective potential and an evolution path for humans as much as a path from a flower seed to one fully in bloom ?

Are there any absolute, objective moral values similar to laws of physics or logic?

It seems pain and suffering are as real as needed to define good and bad and “do” and “don’t”. A star never suffers. An apple does not get hurt by falling from the tree but we humans do suffer physically, mentally and emotionally. So simply to hurt another human being is EVIL.

Do we need more guidance? May be. Consider the case of prostitution. On the surface there is no pain or suffering involved yet it’s considered demeaning and degrading of human dignity.

Even if we succeed in defining the good and evil how do we get the notion of redemption and punishment? What would be the real, objective difference between those wih virtues and those with vices? Beyond social rewards or punishments which incidently has to be defined in terms of pain and pleasure what else distinguishes between them? Has the one with virtues objectively achived higher values? What do we mean by that?

There are certain derives in man that are instinctive for lack of a better term. For example curiousity! Being curious and search for the truth has nothing to do with morality. It’s just in us. If you know the age of the cosmos it does not necessarily make you a better person in moral terms. Or is it? It may make you a more complete human being nonetheless. So how should we define a perfect human?

Too diverse to be intelligent (design)!!

       The sheer magnitude of diversity among living creatures (all kind of shapes and forms and functions) does not bode well with intelligent design!!

Design of so many beasts if anything utterly lacks any purpose so it seems far from intelligence. Just look at all the creatures who live in the oaceans!! Wierd looking, spooky creaatures of enourmus diversity!! Same can be said of pesky insects!! .

A reasonable scenario would be something like a Cellular Automata. Like the “game of life”! Check the game of life by mathematician John Conway:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

The cruel succession of rise and fall!

We humans, so as lots of other forms in nature start from simplicity, defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics (Tendency of nature to disorder or increase in entorpy) and grow more complex only to succumb to entropy later on in life, perish and die! Why?

The same can be said of an apple, a human and arguably a star. In humans that is true of body and mind equally. Body and brain grow in size and complexity and then decay. We lose our learning ability, memory, vision etc. Our morals and values seem to be immune to such a decay nonetheless. In other words we don’t seem to lie more often or turn our vitues to vices as we grow older. Don’t we?!

2nd law of thermodynamic gives us “death”. Which law of  physics gives us “life”?

Where the tendency of nature to produce complex, evolved structures comes from?

What is behind the never tiring, futile attempt of nature to defy regin of entropy?! This ofcourse we see predominantly on earth.

An eerie Mars surface!!

  Looking at the picture from Mars surface, quite, dead, pointless, inhabitable, inhospitable one wonders:

  If there was no intelligent life around what would be god doing in universe?

  There was no meaning to good and evil, no judgment or punishment to handout.

  Material/Physical world would just go along following laws of physics.

  Without intelligent life there would not be any point or meaning of creating universe.

  So does god created intelligence or vice versa?

  Just keep looking at the surface of Mars!! Universe is awfully quite! It’s just sound of Dick cheney grinding his teeth !!

Mesmerized Species!!

Humans are a mesmerized species. We pick up a lot of impressions from our environment (Family, culture, etc) when we are kids. Lots of things become imprinted in us when we have no sense of discretion and they stay with us throughout our lives and we never get to reexamine them. In a way we can not examine them because they become a part of our identity.

It’s like having red glasses on and try to objectively find out what is the true color of the world. Not possible. Intellectual among us tend to research and study these childhood imprints. But they are ignorant to the fact that there is no such thing as objective inquiry as long as one has tainted glasses on. You may be reading an article that claims world is not made of red color but because you have the red glasses on the more you read the more you will be convinced otherwise. That is the plight of humanity!

I am stunned by the number of intelligent, smart, educated people who devote their entire intellectual life defending ideas and beliefs they were fed in their childhood. Ideas that they would have found ludicrous if they were presented to them in adulthood.  

Although there are plenty among us that never become mature and never develop sense of discretion, it is shocking to me how the most intelligent people among us fall into these traps. We are vulnerable as a child. We are blank innocent sheets of paper and our parents and society gets to write what they wish on these blank pages. They were themselves blank pages as a child and so is the lingering legacy of ignorance in human history and the secret behind survival of myths, superstitions & religions! 

Generation after generation we pass on the most bizarre and preposterous ideas and we never pause to question them. It’s all the curse of childhood. As a child we are perceptive but not discreet. The most intimate of these beliefs becomes a part of us so we never get to question them because they are a part of investigator not what’s being investigated. 

There are millions of books racked up in the libraries of the world, some written by brightest of scholars that is devoted to defending such outlandish ideas.

As kids we were told of the most bizarre stories and we all accepted that. We had no other way. Everyone around us seemed to believe that. If it was so outrageous how could my mom, dad, rest of the family and neighbors believe in it. After all it was written in school books and our teacher told us about it.The truth is that most likely we got all these from people that were poorly educated and ignorant and they got these views of the world from their own parents and so on and so forth. You realize how grave of a problem the humanity faces.           

You can trace back all the religious inspired violence and extremism to those innocent childhood years. We pick up these ideas as a child and we kill or get killed for them as adults and never get to question them. This is the tragedy of our species. We kill each other with the best of intentions and divine purity.

How often you hear two men of virtues both devoted to god fight each other in the name of their own gods.

 There are at least half a dozen major religions in the world. Do their followers ever stop to think why their religion is any better than others? I am sure some do. But that is of no avail. They won’t find the answer just by asking the question. This is a problem that needs enlightenment as a solution. A metamorphosis if you wish.

What is missed on such devotees is the fact that they have more in common than it seems. Their views are based on individual childhood innocence and have roots in the down of history of mankind permeated with myths, ignorance and superstition nonetheless kept in hearts and defended with the best of intentions by a lot of otherwise good people.

How absurd would be to see bunch of kids in elementary school fight each other over religion? The holy warriors and crusaders are those same kids grown up with the beliefs they were taught in elementary school!!!