Posts by Islander
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Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Sacha,
So you let the kids starve in the mean meantime?
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Capture: EQNZ Remembrance, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
<q>But yes, the Sumner event looks bright and cheerfulish.
Through people's OWN efforts & work- this the upside to my own gloomy view of our species- cheers!
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Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Sacha,
I viscerally hate the idea of hungry kids in our own islands...yes, I do donate to foodbanks - but wtf are the multimillionaires doing?
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Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Tim McKenzie,
The point is that (almost) everyone (including, it seems, you) speaks as if they believe that there is a universal moral standard with which the morals of individuals and societies could (in theory, at least) be compared.
I certainly dont agree with that comment of your's - it is in opposition of what I understand to be so-
maybe go read/research a bit about -o, history/primatology/anthropology? Not to mention the whole sad story of religions? And consider that interesting religious study, theodicy - a whole field devoted to trying reconcile the problem
of the existence of 'God' and evil...It's an old field of thought: one of my phlosophical heroes is Epicurius:
"Are the gods/is god willing to prevent evil
but not able?
Then they/it is not omnipotent.
Is it able but not willing?
Then it is malevolent.
If it is both willing and able?
Then -whence comes evil?
If it is neither able nor willing-
then why call it god?"Epicurius b.341 BCE & died 270 before common era (1950.)
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Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Sacha,
Um, no...history is a great teacher, especially when you derive from several cultures which were (and to a certain extent, still are ) revenge-driven.
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Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Tim McKenzie,
a) slavery still exists in many parts of the world
b)we think we know what we are - free agents not subject to instinctive drives: our actions & behaviours indicate otherwise. I am implying that for a sane thinking species- one that is free from our inherent drives- such allowing/causing avoidable suffering would not happen. -
Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Tim McKenzie,
you claim that there is no universal moral standard against which to measure the morals of a particular person or society — if you claim that morals all depend on where and when you live —, then you cannot claim (for example) that there was a moral improvement between pre-abolition acceptance of slavery and post-abolition rejection of it; after all, it was a different time, when there was a different society with different morals, just as valid (or invalid) as your own morals and those of the society you live in.
Exactly.
Time, and place, and species make all the difference.
If humans were a truly sane species, there would be no avoidable suffering.
But we aint: we are a dominance-driven hierarchical hominid which has no idea of where it'll end it up- -
Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Interesting , Graeme, and thanks for the explication.
I would suggest, from my & whanau experience, the exact opposite is true in the South- witness a Tirikatene getting Te Tai Toka back. And, from discussions internet & otherwise, I think your last postulation is waaay wrong. -
Hard News: Where do you get yours?, in reply to ppjamieson,
Books from Mightyape.co.nz Fishpond.co.nz thebookdepository.co.nz
and a large number from bookaramas/secondhandbookshops…since my local “Take Note” closed, I no longer buy locally (except when I am south, where there still remain good local bookshops-)
Music-I never buy from iTunes or any on-line source – ditto for dvds.I have libraries of these things too-…have no e-reader nor any intention of buying one.
I like my books as- books. -
Legal Beagle: A matter of conscience, in reply to Tim McKenzie,
he (almost) universal belief that there is a universal moral standard is evidence for the existence of a creator.
Somewhere around - upstairs in the fanatic & fringe section* of my library I think- is a copy of "Mere Christianity." I'll reread it before commenting on your quote - because it would be my contention that there is no such thing as 'a universal moral standard' and I'd be surprised if Lewis had ignored a whole mountain of anthropological evidence to argue so-
*This is not being beastly to believers - that section is so labelled because it contains a large amount of works by apologists, New Age & Christian & others, and it is easy for me to remember where they are.