From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Fri Mar 05 2004 - 08:36:00 MST
Philip wrote:
> Quite a few people on the list have been happy to dismiss the
> existance of a god (or gods!), but have moved straight on to suggest
> that there is an intrinsic ethic in the cosmos AND that we should try to
> conform with it. I must say this has a feeling to me of "the king
> is dead,
> long live the king".
...
> So to my mind the issue is not to second-guess our ethics or morality
> from what we divine in the entrails of the universe but to make
> decisions based on what we think would create a better universe from
> where we stand now.
My point in talking about "the intrinsic ethics of the universe" was partly
that there's little point in trying to impose an "unnatural" ethical system
on the universe or any substantial part of it. We can choose what we want
the universe to be like -- to an extent -- but choices that are more in
harmony with the intrinsic nature of the universe, are more likely to be
actualizable.
-- Ben G
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