tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post7898812591521588658..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: Paying Penance to GodAlonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-72897948588637561902009-06-15T10:10:07.141-06:002009-06-15T10:10:07.141-06:00A few issues:
First, why drag God into it? What a...A few issues:<br /><br />First, why drag God into it? What about a person that wants to flail himself as an act of penance, irrespective of any God - is this moral or not? Certainly the flailing can be accomplished in the world, his desire can be fulfilled. (Likewise, his desire to pay penance religiously can be fulfilled even if there is no god, but it's just not necessary to get there.)<br /><br />Secondly, how do you deal with the neurological facts of desires, such as the fact that desires aren't laying active in the brain but rather are neural nets that are activated when we contemplate them (so you can be not only unaware, but also not have a desire even though you still "have" it within you) - which desires enter the calculus, and which don't? Or the malleability and contradiction between our own desires - is there a difference between treating our own desires or someone else's? Or the fact that due to poor representation some desires indeed cannot be fulfilled but secondary ones (like flailing) can be - are the secondary ones not counted, as you seem to imply? Why?<br /><br /><br />My main argument with you is, I suspect, meta-ethical, regarding the foundations of your theory - but I'll wait for an appropriate post for that.יאיר רזקhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15798134654972572485noreply@blogger.com