Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Post 40. 06/10/2018 continued  . . .

Humanism & Deism

Morality Without Divine Threats

The author makes no attempt to hide his contempt for theistic religions, with their superstitions and irrational thinking. “A “spirituality” that sees cosmic meaning in the whims of fortune is not wise but foolish. The first step toward wisdom is the realization that the laws of the universe don't care about you.” Deists might agree with the first statement, but some may hold out hope that, at the very least, some kind of divine justice, such as Karma, Reincarnation, or Psychic Afterlife, is embedded in the meta-physical laws of their otherwise hands-off deity. If not, what good is a god2? But the Enformationism worldview is agnostic about such occult providence. All we know about those life-after-life possibilities is subjective anecdotes that are no more provable than the existence of the Christian heaven or purgatory. When I identify myself as “spiritual but not religious”, what I mean by “spiritual” is “philosophical”: inclined to ponder the deep questions of Life, the Universe, and God.

One lesson of cultural reality is that, as societies become more diverse in ethnicity, they must become less divisive in doctrine, in order to form a cohesive melting pot. Pinker finds the Deism of the “founding fathers” of America to be an acceptable transitional phase between the bronze age religions and the belief systems of the future. But he doesn't suggest Atheism as a modern replacement : “ . . . atheism is not a moral system in the first place . . . The moral alternative to theism is humanism.” Except for one “minor” detail, I could agree with that assessment. Modern science, especially on the cutting-edge of Quantum theory and Cosmology, is no longer compatible with 18th century Atomism & Materialism. So I have concluded that a complete paradigm — a rational belief system — must  include some alternative to ancient Spiritualism4. And that is the point of the Enformationism worldview, which suggests a consilience3 of Science & Religion in NeoDeism. That Proligion5 would be essentially a combination of Enlightenment Deism, and modern Humanism.  

As I mentioned in the beginning of these reviews, Pinker's passion for a re-enlightenment of America and the world was re-ignited by the election of a president, who may be the best candidate for Anti-Christ in recent memory. “Similarly, in 2016 there was a brief hope that the Christian virtues of humility, temperance, forgiveness, propriety, chivalry, thrift, and compassion toward the weak would turn Evangelicals against a casino owner who was vainglorious, sybaritic, vindictive, lewd, misogynistic, ostentatiously wealthy, and contemptuous of the people he called “losers”.” Apparently, Trump's support among the “theo-conservative” Right is purely political and pragmatic, willing to use the devil for their own ends.

Post 40 continued  . . . click Next

Are you moral
because of fear?
Or love?

2. What good is God?
 http://bothandblog.enformationism.info/page23.html

3. Consilience :
Agreement between the approaches to a topic of different academic subjects, especially science and the humanities.

4. Spiritualism :
A primitive theory of Cause & Effect, ignorant of physical energies & forces. Enform-ationism is an update based on generic Information as the “substance” of both Energy & Matter. To Enform is to cause an effect. To be
“spiritual” is to discern true causes.

5. Proligion :
A proposed religion of the future that looks forward to cultural progress, and a better here & now, instead of looking backward to bronze-age doctrines, and a heavenly hereafter.
[ see NeoDeism popup ]