>On Nov 8, 2007 7:23 PM, Larry Lyons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> In a word, yes. The ancient Greeks (ie., Socrates and Plato for instance) >> discussed ethics and morality without reference to a deity. There's an >> entire branch of philosophy that discusses the concepts, again without >> referencing a deity. In developmental psychology, the area of moral >> development, again does not refer religion. so yes its possible to "live the >> good life" or a moral and ethical life without referring to religion. >> > >Absolutely, but the majority of people don't....the majority of people base >their morality, at least to some degree, on their spiritual >beliefs....which, I suppose, is why they suspect people who do not. > >Which brings us full circle. >
Most people are stuck in the conventional / stage 4 level of moral development, cannot handle abstractions, and reference an authority for their morality. (For a more detailed explanation see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development). Accordingly they cannot see those who do not reference an authority for their morality as moral persons. Hence the reactions of many who hold fundimentalist beliefs that agnostics or atheists are immoral. (i.e., if you don't believe in god then what's stopping you from stealing raping and killing). I did some research some years ago that showed there was a relationship between moral development and intelligence as measured by IQ tests. In the studies I analyzed there were very few people of normal intelligence (IQ's 85 -115) in the stage 5 or 6 categories of moral development, with the preponderance in the conventional states of moral reasoning, stages 3 and 4. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion 8 - Build next generation apps today, with easy PDF and Ajax features - download now http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/coldfusion/cf8_beta_whatsnew_052907.pdf Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:246157 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
