The Light of Burning Cathedrals

(Patheos::Daylight Atheism) – Adam Lee:

Just as the conductor David Randolph said that there’s no such thing as religious music, because you can always pair an existing composition with different lyrics to give it any message you want, it’s equally true that there’s no such thing as religious architecture. I choose to view Notre Dame as similar to the Parthenon, the Pyramids or the lost Buddhas of Bamyan: monumental artworks that testify to the crafters’ skill and to the creativity of the human mind, which has populated the world with wildly diverse mythologies. I don’t believe any should be taken literally, but they’re worth preserving as artifacts of the ways human beings have seen the world. …

daylightatheism 2019/04 cathedrals

Morality as Evolved; What about God?

(Patheos::ATP) – Jonathan MS Pearce:

I am first going to furnish you with an excerpt from Robert Sapolsky’s Behave before discussing the content within a theological context. Of course, what Sapolsky has to say is nothing new or groundbreaking, but it serves s a good introduction to the topic. …

Within the context of primates and other social animals, the foundations of morality are not only there, evident to see, but they are evolved. Their functionality for sociality and social cohesion are clear to see. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the subject of the evolution of morality and morality in other species is concerned. …

If morality is evolved due to its functionality and usefulness, then the grounds to morality are… their functionality and their usefulness. Morality isn’t underwritten by God; God has no explanatory use here, both in terms of causality and moral philosophy. …

tippling morality-as-evolved