The problem with morality …
“Okay, there are a few claims that we have to shelve. You just claimed that I got my morality from a religious tradition. Ask yourself: when you pick up the Bible, the Hebrew Bible, or any holy book, and find ethical wisdom in there - what is that process like? I mean, you pick up Leviticus or Deuteronomy, and you find that, if a woman is not a virgin on her wedding night, you’re supposed to stone her to death on her father’s doorstep. Presumably you choose to reject that pearl of ancient wisdom. And then you find another line (this is also in Leviticus) – ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. The golden rule, as preached in the New Testament. And this resonates with you as a good operating premise to generate further moral intuitions. If nothing else, it’s a good ideal to live toward. Now, the guarantor of your morality in that case is not the book. It’s in your brain. And this kind of truth-testing is something that we bring to religion.— Sam Harris (via atheos)
It’s incredibly important to recognize the epistemological move being made here. Most Christians are unaware of it but not seminarians or priests or pastors. At seminary, you’re taught the fine art of hermeneutics. In its essential form, it’s a method designed to give you theological reasons for why you found one text more appealing the another. Yet, despite all of it, we haven’t escaped the gravity of our own preferences. This is the ultimate problem with moralizing and why there’s no such thing as a universal moral principle. It’s all a posteriori.
(Source: link.brightcove.com)
