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morality and science?

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    #16
    Re: morality and science?

    While you can seek morality and make judgments upon it from either (or both) Science or Religion (philosophy, etc)... Morality itself is separate of the two. As above it often comes down to don't be a jerk and try to better yourself..pretty simple but broad applications. There is a scientific basis however for aspects of morality like altruism but I don't think science has a firm hold of morality and that's not really the purpose behind science either.

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      #17
      Re: morality and science?

      Originally posted by B. de Corbin View Post
      So....

      We've all heard it - "There is no basis for morality without god(s)."

      Is this true?

      Is it possible to have a moral system based on something like, say, science?

      If so, what might such a morality look like?
      Not necessarily, although religion often serves as an organisational basis for the educational purpose of teaching moral behaviour to individuals.

      Ultimately science does not create anything, in of itself. It observes and brings forth conclusions we call fact, theory, and hypothesis. All of which can change in a split second. That being said, there is another reason that I believe that science cannot create morality, and that is that science is not a social thing. Morality deals with the social interactions of human beings, and the expected behaviours therein. Science cannot observe that which does not exist, and cannot develop fact or theory based off of it.

      Ultimately the greatest challenge to a completely secular morality is how to justify the positions of good and bad behaviour according to its principles. Good and bad are the basic principles and fundamentals of any philosophical outlook or morality, as well as how a society organises its leadership hierarchy, its economics and its very behavioural codes.

      To conclude, could human beings come up with their own moral systems without the institution or belief in religion or spirituality? Possibly, but in doing so they would have to at least address fundamental philosophical questions. In my opinion, this system would lack some of the legitimacy that comes from religion initially, but could perhaps sustain itself off of tradition and strict social order and proper enforcement. That being said, there is very little to hold it together and justify its positions, so it can easily fall apart.

      Ultimately there is no real way to predict the outcome because all societies are influenced by religion and spirituality in their cultural values and traditions, so a completely secular morality is, in my opinion, impossible.

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        #18
        Re: morality and science?

        Which came first the behavior or the moral code? Religion attempts to qualify the code and science attempts to quantify the code, but the code pre-exists a person's idea of either religion or science because there can be no meaningful cohabitation of a species without a social code. I can think of no living thing that does not have some type of code for behavior. Even cells have a code of behavior. There are scientific and religious descriptions of this code and explanations for the source of the code, but neither of these human constructs is the source.

        "No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical." -- Niels Bohr

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