THE RIGHTEOUS MIND

THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, why good people are divided by politics and religion – Johnathon Haidt, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University, published in 2012 by Penguin

I read ”The Righteous Mind” 2018 and it started my interest in the science of morality.  It also led to my reading “Moral Tribes” and developing the July 2019 presentation to the Agnostics group.  The following note was written after that and shows where I was heading.  There will be links to the Power Point Presentation and my presentation notes if they’re not already there.

My position now is that there will never be a “Universal Moral Code” but we may be able to move towards a better approach to morality that is acceptable to most and maybe save the planet and the people.

AGNOSTIC MORALITY

I’m suggesting we can improve the human condition if we move to an Agnostic Morality.  Religions have claimed a superior morality over secular morality for ages.  The value of a universal code of ethics and morality has been obvious for ages.  It was obvious to me as a child when I saw the divisive codes in my small hometown between religions as well as between believers and non-believers.

I have to admit I find it difficult to define the difference between morals and ethics.  I suspect morals are more relative than ethics.  I see the role of ethics to define what is moral as opposed to immoral whereas morality is more a relative judgement.  That is, ethics are black and white, and morality is shades of grey from white to black.  We sometimes have to behave unethically to survive and such behaviour is more moral than immoral.  For example, killing to save our loved ones.

Scientists are studying morality.  This study was once the monopoly of religion but with the decline of religion the growth of science, secular morality is taking over.  We now have democracy, the rule of law, the separation of the powers of the administration, the legislature and the judiciary together with the fourth estate, the media.  These are all secular institutions.  The separation of Church from State is also a secular concept enshrined in the Australian Constitution.

We have a significant change in the media with the advent of computer technology, social media in particular.  We now have a battle with “False Truth”, conspiracy theories and opposing ideas given equal access, hate speech and people being demonised for expressing views unpopular to others.  Podcasts and YouTube are changing the way we get our news.  We now have to consider the veracity of everything we see and hear.  False evidence can be generated like never before.  Special video effects can be used to show anything you like.

I believe a universal code of morality and/or ethics is needed now like never before.  We need to develop an agnostic code of morality.  Neuroscientist, Michael Gazzaniga has a whole Chapter entitled “Toward a Universal Ethics” in his book “The Ethical Brain” published in 2005 by Dana Press which

Greene says “What we lack, I think, is a coherent global moral philosophy, one that can resolve disagreements among competing moral tribes.  See pages 14/15 for more.

A higher cause – an alternative to God

Ten Commandments

Graham Young’s four – Honesty, Integrity, Generosity and Serving others.