A question from ThinkingTheist
Hello, I am new to your blog, TumblrAtheist, so I had a question… You think there are such things as right or wrong? Isn’t it your belief system which says we are no more than overgrown germs with no free will? I’d like your opinion on the topic… have you ever thought about it?
Because you’re sort of imply that there is a moral standard that transcends human constructs or preference. Saying “doing what is right regardless of what you are told” strongly alludes to the fact that there is an immaterial moral measuring stick, and real objective moral truths that are there regardless of who believes in them and who doesn’t.
I don’t see how this concept can be reconciled with your worldview of materialistic atheism. Your thoughts?
I’ve just had a look at your blog and noticed you posted a question for me which I would of not seen if not for my own curiosity. Which begs the question, did you actually want me to answer this? Anyway…
I have thought about this particular subject on numerous occasions and, after reading several scientific papers, I’ve believe that morally objectionable behaviours do not appear to be caused entirely by genetic factors without any meaningful volitional component. I think to fully explain why I should examine the question and discover what is hidden beneath its apparently simple construction. Then we can look at the science.
What is “morally objectionable behaviour,” if it is not also a free-will choice? If there were moral judgements attached to any act that took place without free will and the volition to act on it, death itself would be a “morally objectionable behaviour.” Unless one wants to consider every death to be a “morally objection-able behaviour,” we would be forced to say that there are no such behaviors that are completely determined by genetic factors.
The question is whether a person who performs an act that is seen as “morally objectionable behaviour” can ever be taken as having a diminished capacity of free will and therefore not choosing at all. But this presumes too great a role for the human genome in determining behaviour. Human genomes do, in fact, allow free will.
We are born with a tissue that becomes a mind through social interaction. Our DNA encodes, in other words, a Learning Machine. The Learning Machine is very complicated: it requires that most human genes be present in functional versions. Half or more of the genes in the genome are active in the nervous system, and for the most part only in the brain. What these genes encode is the capacity of synaptic connections to be stabilized by use, through the activation and repression of genes in nerve cells. The Learning Machine starts up at birth at the latest, activated by initial input signals from the organs of perception. This is the mechanism by which the mind slowly emerges from the brain, through imitation of the minds of those people with whom the infant interacts. Experiences of the first two years, before language emerges, lay down much of the stable circuitry of the thinking brain. Even after these formative years, the mature brain forever retains plasticity in its circuits, and it never loses the capacity to link past with present experience by familiarity of synaptic pattern. Synaptic connections are made and broken throughout life; these are experienced variously as sensation, perception, memory, repression and on-going teaching and learning.
In conclusion I think that by using insights from science in a social context it is possible to prove that morality is not imprinted in our DNA but gradually taught through social interaction and imitation.
I hope this is enough to show you my thoughts on this matter. I look forward to hearing the opinion of a “thinking theist” (a rare thing I’m sure). If you wish to ask any more questions try not to be such a condescending douche next time. BURN.
TheTumblrAtheist
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