coming to the heading of the post, this has led me to consider that a great strength and powerful tool we could use in the pursuit towards a higher morality, in the absence of guides like religion or faith, is the idea that if nothing matters, then you are freed from the limitations inferred by Stalin's quote. You are free to care about masses of people suffering, and free from any quantifying limitations of significance. It could offer people a means to reflecting on issues in a way that doesn't dehumanize those who suffer just because of the volume of suffering, and facilitate a strengthen stance against suffering -effectively implying meaninglessness grants us a limitless capacity for caring. — dermanhuby
If religion and faith become less important to people, and the idea that there is a "reason" for the universe loses plausibility or interest, then how best can we approach the path of collective morality? — dermanhuby
Yes, that is the individual's morality. The collective morality is built on cross sections of experience, history, increased intelligence, local and globalised needs, protecting a society's progress and order, to name a few. The collective morality is far more vague, and in a constant state of flux. But it is there. For example I don't think there's a reasonable argument within any fraction of humanity that disputes that killing innocent people for fun is morally sound. Nor would I think there's any fraction that would contest that helping another person for the sole purpose of improving that person's life, with no harmful consequences arising from the action, is morally sound.. In varying degrees we have emotional responses to acts committed upon our fellows. — charleton
The invention of god was nothing more than a system to codify behaviour. We still have the law of the land which places our rewards and punishments to a more immediate and pragmatic level. And it is here that our 'collective morality' resides. No different from any time since the invention of god, except that the law of the land do not involve the lie of the supernatural. — charleton
So the transition that society would experience from the simplicity of being offerred clearly defined answers to a world of uncertainty and no answers is the factor i'm considering. — dermanhuby
he collective morality is built on cross sections of experience, history, increased intelligence, local and globalised needs, protecting a society's progress and order, to name a few. — dermanhuby
Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear their cries
Just say if it's too late for me
Doctor, my eyes
Cannot see the sky
Is this the prize
For having learned how not to cry
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