Just discovered your blog (as an aftermath of the latest Scott Alexander post). I must say I was amazed at how *based* I found this post of yours, and how it matches a lot of the intuitions I've been developing in the last year (it probably helps that I have recently read both Henrich and Haidt).
Finally - I've been looking through substack for something like this for months. I don't have time tonight to do any more than skim it right now, but I'm looking forward to digging through it in some depth.
Thank you for putting this together, and for publishing it where I could find it.
Though my remarks are largely critical, I only looked especially at the explicit claims that could be tested empirically; it's quite possible that there's something more here that could be substantiated with subtle changes.
"..nor is there a transcendent God from whom moral facts emanate."
I think atheism in humans will totally disappear in the long-term future. David Grusch has come out to US congress claiming the US government is hiding existence of aliens. Any talk online from supposed whistleblowers and contactees I've heard has no mention of any record of atheist aliens.. and I've done some digging (https://classpunk.substack.com/p/why-i-am-99-sure-aliens-are-real). I used to be an atheist, but now I think one of the intellectual weaknesses of atheists and the general public is a belief that it's smarter not to entertain probabilities based on anecdotal information patterns just because they don't measure with the detail of the scientific method. The general public keeps ignoring me so I'm waiting for government disclosure, so they can catch up with me, since I don't ignore probabilities from anecdotal information patterns.
The world we live in is composed of JavaScript (or perhaps PHP or C#), which implies God is very likely. That said, most religions' account of divinely commanded morality remains rather at odds with most peoples' moral opinions.
"But where does this moral obligation come from?"
Fear of hell.
"Was it also true 5,000 years ago, before the idea of “moral equality” had occurred to anyone (and when human sacrifice was nearly universal)?"
Maybe, maybe not. We must examine their ideas of divinely commanded morality.
Just discovered your blog (as an aftermath of the latest Scott Alexander post). I must say I was amazed at how *based* I found this post of yours, and how it matches a lot of the intuitions I've been developing in the last year (it probably helps that I have recently read both Henrich and Haidt).
Cool! Thanks man. Did Scott mention me or was it a comment?
Not directly. I went from Scott's to BB, and from him to you.
nice title
Finally - I've been looking through substack for something like this for months. I don't have time tonight to do any more than skim it right now, but I'm looking forward to digging through it in some depth.
Thank you for putting this together, and for publishing it where I could find it.
I have a long response here: https://thingstoread.substack.com/p/is-utilitarianism-an-amoral-system
Though my remarks are largely critical, I only looked especially at the explicit claims that could be tested empirically; it's quite possible that there's something more here that could be substantiated with subtle changes.
"..nor is there a transcendent God from whom moral facts emanate."
I think atheism in humans will totally disappear in the long-term future. David Grusch has come out to US congress claiming the US government is hiding existence of aliens. Any talk online from supposed whistleblowers and contactees I've heard has no mention of any record of atheist aliens.. and I've done some digging (https://classpunk.substack.com/p/why-i-am-99-sure-aliens-are-real). I used to be an atheist, but now I think one of the intellectual weaknesses of atheists and the general public is a belief that it's smarter not to entertain probabilities based on anecdotal information patterns just because they don't measure with the detail of the scientific method. The general public keeps ignoring me so I'm waiting for government disclosure, so they can catch up with me, since I don't ignore probabilities from anecdotal information patterns.
Get on the LibDem network:
https://eharding.substack.com/p/why-does-russian-physical-therapy
The world we live in is composed of JavaScript (or perhaps PHP or C#), which implies God is very likely. That said, most religions' account of divinely commanded morality remains rather at odds with most peoples' moral opinions.
"But where does this moral obligation come from?"
Fear of hell.
"Was it also true 5,000 years ago, before the idea of “moral equality” had occurred to anyone (and when human sacrifice was nearly universal)?"
Maybe, maybe not. We must examine their ideas of divinely commanded morality.