Science Can Answer Moral Questions?

Science Can Answer Moral Questions?

Debates

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lia

Joined
27 Jul 09
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26 Mar 10

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/harris20100322/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EthicalTechnology+Ethical+Technology#When:16:14:48Z

Quote: "So the bottom line is simply this - Sam wasted 20 minutes restating the obvious in a vain and immature attempt to look like a philosopher and a deep thinker. Simultaneously he offered no solutions, no methodologies, nothing of any substance whatsoever. Nothing. His attempt at trying to posit that science has some skill at determining morality was a elitist farce. Science, which has been used as a tool for genocide, eugenics, and mass murder and the justification for for some of the worse behavior in the history of the world, is now going to determine morality? Sam might have been speaking to a bunch of pudding head feel gooders, but I've been around the block a few times and paid attention in history class. Science is a tool. It can be used for good or for evil. Sam's pretending that it is suddenly this moral barometer, is the antic of a secular simpleton."

agreed.

w

Joined
02 Jan 06
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26 Mar 10

Originally posted by living in a cave
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/harris20100322/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EthicalTechnology+Ethical+Technology#When:16:14:48Z

Quote: "So the bottom line is simply this - Sam wasted 20 minutes restating the obvious in a vain and immature attempt to look like a philosopher and a deep thinker. Simultaneously he o ...[text shortened]... g that it is suddenly this moral barometer, is the antic of a secular simpleton."

agreed.
Of course, some may argue that this belongs in the spirituality forum, but not me. I will then talk about spirituality and let the chips fall where they may.

I often scratch my head when people say that science has proven to them that God is not real for much of the same reasons. Science is ONLY limited to the material world and is simply a tool. To obtain meaning from science we must assign value to it in relation to our daily lives. In contrast, spirituality is focused entirely on meaning and value thus, it is much more relavant to me personally.
For example, as the scriptures indicate, God is love and love is the driving force in our lives. It is immaterial and in and of itself does not exist yet it is the single most important phenomenon in our lives.

K

Germany

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27 Oct 08
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26 Mar 10

It depends on whether or not you regard ethics as a part of science.

P
Upward Spiral

Halfway

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26 Mar 10
1 edit

Moral sentences have no truth value as they do not express propositions.

Insanity at Masada

tinyurl.com/mw7txe34

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26 Mar 10

Originally posted by living in a cave
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/harris20100322/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EthicalTechnology+Ethical+Technology#When:16:14:48Z

Quote: "So the bottom line is simply this - Sam wasted 20 minutes restating the obvious in a vain and immature attempt to look like a philosopher and a deep thinker. Simultaneously he o ...[text shortened]... g that it is suddenly this moral barometer, is the antic of a secular simpleton."

agreed.
I believe morality is created by the nervous system (specifically the brain). If this is true, then yes, eventually scientific methods for evaluating morality may be possible.