In what way do you mean that the natural feelings are connected to symbols? Do you mean that certain feelings are associated with certain symbols, or that people are trained so that certain symbols evoke certain feelings? Maybe if you have an example I'd follow you a bit better.
Not as much as...
Now you're getting into the questions of where instinctival morality comes from. I, not believing in an external code of morality, think that it is nothing more than a set of morals that has evolved, possibly part genetically as well as culturally.
I think that even believers would probably...
Using a different base would change how the number of apples was written down, but it would not change what that number was. If you count those five apples using base 2 say, you will get 21. But 21 in base 2 is equivilent to 5 in base 10.
I won't dispute that.
I assure you, as a rule, people who have just aquired power do not wake up thinking "I think I'll oppress people today." The history of every oppressive government shows that it tends to happen gradually. People oppress others when they start to think that it is not immoral...
Sorry for late reply. By feeling I mean that I have a sense of disgust at the thought of something that goes against my instinctival morality. That's a documented psychological things. As for which one is stronger, it's like comparing which one of 2 physical things I find disgusting I find more...
It is a feeling, but also, very importantly, it is a feeling that, when I follow the logic of it along with following the logic of my other feelings, does not lead to any consistancies. Sometimes I do get inconsistancies, and in that case I decide which feeling is stronger, and abandon the other...
I don't believe that there is a genuinelly objective measure of that difference. I think that the best that you can do is to start from a position that hardly anyone would agree with. For example, I might make it an assumption as part of an argument about morality that it is wrong to cause pain...
That's very interesting. Am I wrong in thinking that that isn't that common for Christians? I know you were very keen to point out that most Christians do not take something as literally true simply because it is in the Bible, but is it the case that there are many Christians who don't take...
I dunno...that analogy seems to suggest too much conscious effort of control on the part of the matador/leaders. For the most part, I don't think that leaders set out to exploit and control their citizens. They only fall into a habit of doing so if their citizens do not hold them accountable. I...
Perhaps you or any other Christian could give some examples of what meanings are containted in the Old Testament. I find it hard myself to read it without receiving the impression that it is saying for example that murder, rape, conquest etc. are sometimes ok.
Ah right. So do you see the Bible as somehow special in its ability to give meaning in that way, or do you see it as just on a par with a very inspiring novel?
Well our consciousness obviously exists at present. If consciousness is metaphysical then metaphysical things can have existance. If consciousness is not metaphysical, then it has to either exist or not exist, and therefore after death it either continues to exist, or it does not. If our...
What about a claim such as "Jesus Christ existed." Is it not fair to say that the Bible claims that there was a person called Jesus Christ? (regardless of whether it attempts to prove that claim)
That isn't my intention I assure you. I know that for some Christians the Bible is self-proving, for others it simply compliments other reasons for belief.
I'm just trying to understand whether when you say the Bible reveals things, you mean it is simply reminding Christians of them, or...
I do see your point, but surely it's the case that in some cases the Bible makes a claim that has a truth or false condition in the "scientific sense" if we could call it that.
I would say that the statement "God exists" is true or false in the "scientific sense," whereas something like "God is...
A statement can only be true for some and not true for others if it is describing something about those people. While parts of the Bible may be doing that, a lot of it isn't. Either God exists or He doesn't. If He does, then either He sent a son to Earth or He didn't. Either all unbelievers go...
This is the issue that most worries me out of those that arise from a philosophy of allowing the free market to dictate our institutions. Learning for its own sake seems all but dead. Huge numbers of teachers say now that there are lots of areas of their subject that they would love to teach...
I would contest that. After after, my own political philosophy's aim is to create a society without winners and losers. I don't want to get into a debate about whether the specifics of that are possible, but it's certainly conceivable. Some social systems create a more marked difference between...