Originally posted by forkedknight
Explain morality to me. Tell me why people behave with good will toward others. Why are people generous to those in need who they do not know?
Why are all of the laws of physics/thermodynamics/electricity so elegant and simple?
Why do so many of the basic themes in religion appear so universally across all parts of the globe, even those that h ...[text shortened]... orld until the last couple hundred years?
Give me proof for what caused/created those things.
Why is “I don’t (yet anyway) know” not a valid answer? [Granted that there are a number of theories about human morality...]
If someone asks, “Who/what create/caused ‘God’?”, the answer is generally that God is
causa sui. That is, there is no who/what/or why permitted when it comes to God. The causal/explanatory chain is truncated—by no more than simple fiat—at that point. One can just as logically truncate the explanatory chain at—the cosmos as it is. (Note: the cosmos is not a thing in itself, but the collectivity, the totality, the whole; if every aspect of that totality could be—internally—explained, there would be no further need of any explanation for the cosmos-itself.)
Why is there a god? Why should one assume that such a god is benevolent? Why would a (presumably) perfect god create an imperfect cosmos? Why would god (any god) not let his/her creatures know the existence and nature of that god perfectly?
The point is just that such “why” questions are no less artificially truncated at “god” than at “the cosmos”. Or at
this god rather than
that one.
Why do people love? Perhaps it’s rooted in the survival urge (especially with regard to communal animals). Perhaps it’s an accident of our consciousness. Perhaps it’s “God”. In the face of not knowing, however, it seems better to acknowledge the possibility of natural explanations—or even “I don’t know”—than to leap to some supernatural category, which really begs the same sort of questions—unless they are simply disallowed at that point.
Why do people love? Why do some people claim that “God” loves? Why, why, why...
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I don’t know what you mean by “proof”. What level of proof? Preponderance of evidence? Beyond a reasonable doubt? Certainty?
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The Buddha said (among other things): “In living there is suffering.” He did not ask “why?”. He asked: “What is the source?” Clutching/grasping. He did not ask: “Why do people clutch and grasp?”. He asked: “Can such suffering be alleviated?” He asked: “How?”
If there is no god, why is there suffering? If there is a god, why is there suffering? Or loving? Or compassion? Why is there morality? Why is there immorality? If there is no god, why is there death? If there is a god, why is there death? “God” does not really answer any of those questions. It just introduces a new level for the same old asking. And, at the so-called “supernatural” level, anyone can make up whatever answers they want—or buy into whatever answers have previously been given by others who speculated.
In life there is suffering. How can such suffering be alleviated? In life there is compassion. How can such compassion be extended?
These kinds of questions seem to me to be far more meaningful than why, why, why...
EDIT: Of course, one can put simple causative or descriptive questions in terms of “why?” “Why are you worried?” “Because I can’t figure out how to pay my bills this month.” Etc., etc. These are not quite the same as the metaphysical “Why is there something rather than nothing at all?” or "Why is there God?" type of questions.