Thinking And Moral Problems/Introduction
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Why do humans have beliefs and religions? This question puzzled me for many years. The answer, “to help us solve moral problems and make moral decisions,” only introduces other questions. Why do we have moral problems anyway? Clearly, everyday living requires us to solve many practical problems, but where do moral problems come from?
To understand why humans need beliefs and religions we must first investigate how we think—particularly how we solve practical problems and make practical decisions. Understanding these matters explains why solving abstract problems of morality requires us to invoke beliefs and construct religions. And this, in turn, equips us to examine, with some impartiality, the religions we now employ (we attempt to do this in Part Two, Religions And Their Source).
Chapter One, Thinking, tackles the first task. It discusses the brain, moves to the idea of a mind, and ends by exploring what we usually mean when we say we are thinking. We will find that a great deal of our thinking has to do with solving problems.
Chapter Two, Solving Problems, shows that all problems originate in, and are structured by, the various environments that we inhabit; practical problems devolve from the practical environment, social problems from the social environment, and so on. But moral problems, issues of “right” or “wrong,” originate entirely within our minds, and it is the mind’s lack of an environment (other than the one each of us constructs—more about this in Part Two, Religions And Their Source) that makes these difficult to solve.
Chapter Three, Making Decisions, discusses decision-making. It points out that the desire to attain a purpose is basic to making any decision, be it practical or moral. Moral judgements are metaphysical judgements, so we must have some metaphysical purpose in mind (and also want to attain it) before we can make moral decisions. Religions provide such purposes. They also provide various metaphysical environments; these create and structure our moral problems, as we shall see.
In short, Part One demonstrates that we cannot solve moral problems or make moral decisions without valuing the attainment of some kind of purpose (which can be spiritual or secular). We do not do this because there is (or is not) a god. We do not do this because we follow a religion. We do this, as we will shortly discover, because we try to think rationally when solving important problems and when making important decisions.
The four parts are:
Part One, Thinking And Moral Problems. This part includes Chapter One Thinking, Chapter Two Solving Problems and Chapter Three Making Decisions.
Part Two, Religions And Their Source. This part includes Chapter Four Religions' Origins, Chapter Five Revelations And Conversions and Chapter Six Present Day Religions.
Part Three, Purpose. This part includes Chapter Seven The Universe, Chapter Eight Life, Chapter Nine Looking For A Purpose and Chapter Ten Life And Exploiting.
Part Four, Developing A Universal Religion. This part includes Chapter Eleven Why Bother?, Chapter Twelve Possible Applications, Chapter Thirteen Determining Moral Behaviours and Chapter Fourteen A Universal Religion.
The four parts attempt to explain why the world needs a "universal religion."
To properly understand the need for a universal religion, we must first understand why religions are needed. Part One, Thinking And Moral Problems, of this book examines the neurological and environmental conditions that create the mental need for a religion. Essentially, our minds are problem-solving and decision-making entities, handling practical situations proficiently but often finding moral ones difficult. Religions help by shaping the background “environment” that defines the moral problem that confronts us.
Unfortunately, none of our existing religions could become the basis for a universal religion. The rationale for stating so is developed in Part Two, Religions And Their Source.
Part Three, Purpose, searches for a purpose that is significant enough to be used when universally applicable moral decisions have to be made. It gives reasons for stating that life’s behaviour itself may provide such a purpose. Part Four, Developing A Universal Religion, presents some philosophical and practical reasons for using such a purpose then illustrates how it might be used to develop a rational code of “moral” behaviour. Part Four ends with a few suggestions about religion building.
The emphasis throughout this book is on the importance of choosing a suitable (i.e., universal, timeless and rational) purpose and using it to make decisions that impact upon civilization’s progress. In that such a purpose will generate moral solutions, it may eventually head a “universal religion.” However, this book explores only the reasons why such a religion is needed and how one might be derived; the possible development of one is a task that others might like to think about undertaking.
Some points in this series may promote discussions and dissensions. These are welcome, of course, but can make following the text difficult if included within the text. I suggest that:
- facts (as defined in wikipedia [[1]]) are included as changes in the text, but
- opinions (as defined in wikipedia [[2]]) are added to the discussion page. Please give your name or a pen-word, so that others can refer to your entry in any replies.
N.B. Changes in text can be found by referring to the history page.
Since the text is being modified, you may wish to read, or print, parts (or all) of the original book. You can do this by downloading the PDF file.
David Hockey 20:53, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
You may also download copies for ebook readers from http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/849
David Hockey (talk) 11:18, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
By: Andrean Rule Bomediano
