Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

With the removal of a giant Christian cross, Maryland’s Governor should stop linking democracy with his religion. I wonder how Jeff Mather would react to such persecution as he would be a tremendous presidential judicial appointment. OK, I have written enough about Roy Moore over the last few weeks so this is the last time and Senator Rapert of Arkansas can have a mention instead.

America has been fighting over statues for a long time. Could it be that the First Amendment is completely misunderstood? What of religious freedom and the modern republic?

The new PM of New Zealand is sworn in without a Bible.

Dan Brown on taking metaphor as fact while Nietzsche thought truth to be a mobile army of metaphors.

Why the Soviet attempt to stamp out religion failed.

Sticks and stones, free speech and punching politics.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are hit with a massive child abuse lawsuit. How advanced are the Catholic Church when it comes to implementing child protection safeguards?

This weeks’ Woo:  Some herbal remedies are being widely linked to liver cancers. There is an alternative to naturopathy and it is called medicine. And enough of the placenta eating already!

Climate Change: What convinced these scientists that climate change is real but are they too late coming to the table. We need better qualified people in power.

Five surprise discoveries in fundamental physics.

Could the merger of neutron stars help determine how fast the fabric of the Universe is expanding?

Opposition to Galileo was scientific, not just religious.

The compassionate way to combat Creationism.

The Cuddly One will talk to someone way above the firmament.

Moral outrage in the digital age (pdf).

Elif Shafak wonders if you can taste words.

Some photographs taken last week.

Have a very unheimlich Halloween. Remember that Jesus must be real as vampires are afraid of crucifixes.

While you are waiting for the satirical kettle to boil…..

Coffee Break Video: Cutting through Confirmation Bias. Ten harsh truths about religion.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

I consider it a more mature position to strive to become an adult than to desire be born again.

Me.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Moral outrage in the digital age” is a good guide to “moral anger”, the anger we feel when someone violates a moral norm (that we ourselves disapprove of).  The article says

“expressing moral outrage benefits individuals by signalling their moral quality to others.  That is, outrage expression provides reputational rewards.  People are not necessarily conscious of these rewards when they express outrage.  But the fact that people are more likely to punish when others are watching indicates that a concern for reputation at least implicitly whets our appetite for moral outrage.”

This assumes that people display moral anger more conspicuously when there are other people around, because it makes them look good and virtuous and is good for their reputation.  I am sure this comes into it, but I think this point of view neglects the social aspect of shame, reputation and moral anger – it’s about disapproval from the whole community as much as from individuals.

The article also neglects to mention that moral anger is enjoyable.  For some reason, we love to get angry at someone who we feel has done something wrong.

Moral anger may be responsible for the isolated murders we see in the archaeological record in the long ages before warfare started.

Interestingly, it’s not observed in non-human animals, except that one chimpanzee will avoid working with another chimpanzee who is obviously not good at cooperating.  This points to its social and cultural origins, the same origin as the human moral sense.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Why the Soviet attempt to stamp out religion failed.” – the religion we have is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, mainly because in its name, people can cling on to and justify practices that the rest of us see as harmful or evil.

Traditionally, the Abrahamic God has two faces: the unconditionally loving, and the judgemental, or conditional.  These cannot exist at the same time: the first operates exclusively all the time we are alive; the second kicks in at the point when we die, and God decides whether we go “up” or “down”.

Muslims say “only God can judge”.  But (and I love how much this gets my goat) there are plenty of religious people who take it on themselves to enact God’s punishment or judgement – rejection – for themselves, right here on Earth, as if they were God’s Policeman, PC God.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Moral anger” – it’s also true, as the article points out, that moral anger towards someone makes us disapprove of them, which means we feel less empathy towards them (“dehumanise” them) and actually feel less pain in our own brains in response to seeing them get hurt.  We literally do not care about them as much, whereas it is the opposite for people we feel moral approval or admiration for.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“God’s Policeman” – what these people are indulging in is moral anger.

[Author]

Posts