morality

Action or perception: which is morally fundamental? Theists (e.g. Christians) typically see perception as a tool to achieve righteous actions, while atheists often believe action is merely a way to create pleasant experiences. Would actions still be valuable if they always led to misery? Would pleasure still be valuable if you never had to work for it? What really matters?  Read More »

How many times have you seen this in a debate?

Person 1: I lost my virginity at 15!
Person 2: That's... wrong! Don't do that!

This is one thing that always bugs me in a debate: when people say something is "wrong" as their only counterpoint. This is simply because morality is a subjective concept that we as humans came up with to explain types of behavior. Please note that most of this is just my personal theories on the origins of morality, but (as should be obvious), they make perfect sense in my own mind.  Read More »

I was recently in attendance at a Church of Christ Sunday service when two things caught my ear. The first of these was on the idea of Judeo-Christian morality and the second was on the topic of false prophets, specifically, Mohammed. These were the two things that when I heard them, my face immediately creased into a frown and I began to listen more intently at what was being spoken…  Read More »

I'm not technically a "Puritan" in the religious sense of the word; rather, I am a Puritan in the sense of being disturbed by the state of ethics and morality in my generation and its culture today. Of course it's no business of mine, but the way my peers carry out their lives today absolutely drives me insane. It seems all teenagers want to ever do is party, party, party- they call it being "free" or "having fun," but in reality they are miserable slaves. The most distressing part of it all is I can complain about it, but I know nothing I do or say will make any difference.

Warning: This will be a puritanical diatribe against you, my generation.  Read More »

What I cherish in Bataille: his worldview. All, he says, is but part of a system of interplaying energetic forces. The system is such as to desire violent excess, chaos. All is desire to overflow, to explode, to release, to expend. Energetic frenzy is seemingly suspended- it's slowed up, congealed... Until the breaking point.  Read More »

I am going to come out and say it, Americans are afraid of sex. It's the truth. You go anywhere in Europe and there are naked statues and pieces of art all over the city, there are nude beaches, there is a huge fascination with Playboy, and at night the TV channels turn to porn. Now this is not to say that Europeans are immoral people living life's full of nudity and orgies.  Read More »

The second law of thermodynamics says that isolated systems will deteriorate at an increased rate in time. Entropy is just the opposite of order; entropy is disorder, the breaking down of things. In order to oppose this law, systems must engage in interactions with the environment at large as well as each other.  Read More »

I am simply posing the question that has confounded the great minds of our history. Well let me make it a few questions. First, what is morality? Is it doing the "right" thing and/or doing the "good" thing? From whom do we derive this definition? Can we have morality without God(s)? If God(s) does not exist then from where do non-theists derive their definition and application of morality?  Read More »