The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

Carl Sagan

The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

Carl Sagan

EDIT: I made a wallpaper with this quote.

Jesse Bering’s mother died of cancer on a Sunday, in her own bed, at 9 o’clock at night. Bering and his siblings closed her door and went downstairs, hoping they might somehow get some sleep.

It was a long, hard night, but around 7 a.m., something happened: The wind chimes outside his mother’s window started to chime.

Bering remembers waking to the tinkle of these bells, a small but distinct sound in an otherwise silent house. And he remembers thinking that those bells carried a very specific message.

“It seemed to me … that she was somehow telling us that she had made it to the other side. You know, cleared customs in heaven,” Bering says.

The thought surprised him. Bering was a confirmed atheist. He did not believe in any kind of supernatural anything. He prided himself on being a scientist, a psychologist who believed only in the measurable material world. But, he says, he simply couldn’t help himself.

Confirmed atheist? I suppose that means self-described atheist. In any case, there is a small part of me that understands this desire. However, when my father died last year, I did not have any of these supernatural leanings. I also do not see how having such leanings is beneficial to evolution. On a personal individual level, belief may be advantageous; yet, in the grand scheme of things, I fail to see it.

There are two parts of the equation I’d like to touch upon here: The belief in god as well as the belief in the supernatural, such as ghosts. Some people state that without god, there are no morals. I disagree for the following reason. Morals are innate, they are part of our societal instincts. Members of the non-human animal kingdom have proven this time and again. There is a huge advantage to following the so-called Golden Rule- treating others as we wish to be treated. Evaluating a situation and deciding what is right (as opposed to having a cut and dry set of rules to follow) is the key to true morality. Acting out of fear or to kiss the “ass” of an invisible bully is not truly moral behavior. Whether it be a god or a dead relative watching, one being good out of fear isn’t the optimal way to be good, in my opinion.

“Whether it’s a dead ancestor or God, whatever supernatural agent it is, if you think they’re watching you, your behavior is going to be affected,” he says.

True enough, yet that doesn’t make it an evolutionary benefit. And he goes on:

In fact, Bering says that believing that supernatural beings are watching you is so basic to being human that even committed atheists regularly have moments where their minds turn in a supernatural direction, as his did in the wake of his mother’s death.

I’m not so sure about that. It may be accurate in specific cases, but not so much for every nonbeliever. The idea of someone watching every single thing you do, from masturbation to hanging out with friends, is – quite frankly – creepy. I wouldn’t find it comforting in the slightest. If I’m in a bad situation, I try to think of the best reasonable way to get out of it rather than finding comfort in the possibility that someone or something is watching over me.

Every animal, including humans, has a moral center and that is what is advantageous to evolution. There is an innate desire to live in a society where people treat one another as they would like to be treated. It just makes good sense.

Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City today, evicting about 45 members of an extended family which has occupied the building for more than 70 years.

The settlers claimed to have documentation to prove they had purchased the building from the owners. The Palestinian tenants, who have been fighting attempts to evict them for many years, were challenging the takeover in court.

…

According to Mohammed Kirresh, 22, a member of the Palestinian family, “Jewish people and Israeli soldiers with weapons” came at 2am, when most of the family was at a wedding.

He said the family, which had rented the property since 1936, had won two previous court cases challenging eviction orders. He claimed the Israelis had broken furniture and damaged belongings. [Read more]

This reminds me of how Jews have been persecuted for many years. It’s not rational behavior, that after being treated a certain way for no reason, to treat others in the same way. Mostly, I speak from my experiences in America: Bigoted Jews, Mexicans who don’t like Puerto Ricans, homophobic blacks, and the list goes on and on. I come from the line of thinking of The Golden Rule, that it makes good sense to treat others as I’d like to be treated. Apparently, not everyone agrees. Turning years of persecution into reverse persecution only makes matters stickier. Yet people of all races, nationalities, etc. continue to do it.

I have a hard time comprehending how the fear of something judging you has anything to do with morals. How is fear ethical? How can belief in a god and the afterlife be the only thing keeping one from murdering and stealing? Why aren’t these believers raping and enslaving everyone they see? Surely, some people are better with belief, but its not the belief itself. I would gather its more of a belief in belief, as Daniel Dennett puts it. The notion of a belief makes people feel warm and fuzzy. With sparkles in your eyes and a light shining down on you, how could you not be good? Hmm. This, of course, excludes when God’s followers aren’t killing and harassing in his name. So I wonder if one’s really “good” with belief in god. Isn’t that just a conscience and the fear of law within?  Isn’t god just an add-on? For what ever purpose necessary, god is not the driving force – and should not be.

I certainly do not mean to imply that believers aren’t good but that many aren’t good due to their belief, but that little voice in their heads called a conscience. We treat people a certain way because that is how we would like to live: in a society where people are kind. Its common sense to me, that murder is wrong. It is also common sense to me that slavery, rape, and torture are wrong. Do I have a better sense of morals than God? Perhaps I am the messiah my people are still waiting for! ;)

If belief enables one to be a better person, its perfectly expected in society. I can’t wait for the day when the same is expected for nonbelievers; where everyone is honest about being good for goodness sake.

At some point, enough has to be enough. Catholics will have to make a decision as to either stay with a “church” that allows and covers up the molestation and rape of young boys and cast the current pope and priests aside in their minds as “not a real Catholics” or seek what they find in the Catholic church elsewhere.

(H/t)

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

So, an eye for an eye but never turn the other cheek?

Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.

Celebrate your moral heroes!