A convoluted, covert and self-delusional way of expressing how you want other people to behave.
I must say I agree with this, and it’s reassuring to see someone else say it out loud.
I find that a lot of people who successfully make the step to a non-theistic world view are unable to then shed the baggage of moral realism. They continue to damn their intellectual opponents as demonstrably, factually “immoral”. They just change the source of that objective morality from God to secular philosophy. It’s uncomfortable to realize that your side isn’t the one, true, noble cause. Thus, new atheists latch on to some political cause or the “cause of Reason” and assert it as the true objective good.
And hey, I support many of the goals of the “cause of Reason”. I’m in favor of raising the sanity waterline and improving the instrumental rationality of my friends and colleagues. But that’s a subjective value. That’s my preference. And that’s okay.
Heh, I’m tempted to answer “yes” to your question because it makes me seem wittier than I was.
In reality, what I meant by “okay” was: Not contradictory or a crisis of rationality. It is indeed hard to avoid the language of objective judgments in English. :)
I must say I agree with this, and it’s reassuring to see someone else say it out loud.
I find that a lot of people who successfully make the step to a non-theistic world view are unable to then shed the baggage of moral realism. They continue to damn their intellectual opponents as demonstrably, factually “immoral”. They just change the source of that objective morality from God to secular philosophy. It’s uncomfortable to realize that your side isn’t the one, true, noble cause. Thus, new atheists latch on to some political cause or the “cause of Reason” and assert it as the true objective good.
And hey, I support many of the goals of the “cause of Reason”. I’m in favor of raising the sanity waterline and improving the instrumental rationality of my friends and colleagues. But that’s a subjective value. That’s my preference. And that’s okay.
Great points! Was the final sentence intentional irony? :)
Edit to clarify: “And that’s okay” seems to slip back into objective morality (although of course it is hard to avoid such phrasing in English).
Heh, I’m tempted to answer “yes” to your question because it makes me seem wittier than I was.
In reality, what I meant by “okay” was: Not contradictory or a crisis of rationality. It is indeed hard to avoid the language of objective judgments in English. :)