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

Post 40. 06/10/2018 continued  . . .

Humanism & Deism

A Religion for All Humanity

Although he is opposed to Religion in its most common forms, Pinker can see a place for some form of reverence for the Cosmos, of which humanity may be the epitome of Evo-lution and Enformation to date. “What about a more abstract sense of “spirituality”? If it consists in gratitude for one's existence, awe at the beauty and immensity of the universe, and humility before the frontiers of human understanding, then spirituality is indeed an experience that makes life worth living – and one that is lifted into higher dimensions by the revelations of science and philosophy. But “spirituality” is often taken to mean something more : the conviction that the universe is somehow personal.” So, is there any sense in which the absentee creator & non-intervening deity of Enlightenment era Deists could be viewed as personal? If not, what would be the difference between the god-less universe of Science, and the god-infused world of Deism? Remember, the deity of PanEn-Deism is both transcendent and immanent. So, you could say that all persons in the world are little avatars of Deus. Is that personal enough for you? When your neighbor does some favor for you, thank G*D.

Deists ground meaning & morality in G*D for the same reason they view the deity as the "ground of being". Everything in our world, good or evil, is a manifestation of G*D. So the deity is the foundation and the constitution of Reality. If human-ists can accept that Nature is divine, in the sense of being an embodiment of a self-existent Creator, then the NeoDeist form of humanism should be successful. But the Deists must also accept that homo sapiens is the only Moral Agency6 in the world. We have always made moral decisions on behalf of animals, and we will have to make moral choices for our Artificial Intelligence, until it reaches our level of sentience and moral agency.

Pinker is painfully aware that Humanism lacks the “right stuff to compete head-on with established religions on their turf, which depends on our innate tendencies for Faith and Tribalism. “Though the moral and intellectual case for humanism is, I believe, over-whelming, some might wonder whether it is any match for religion, nationalism, and romantic heroism in the campaign for human hearts. Will the Enlightenment ultimately fail because it cannot speak to primal human needs?” Can the head truly rule the heart, or is it bound to be a “slave of the passions”7? These are the same questions that Deists ponder as they hope to convince their neighbors that they are not Atheists or Amoralists.

Despite the polarized state of religion & politics in the United States, Pinker is optimistic that the influence of Enlightenment principles, which inspired the American experiment, will continue to appeal to the hearts & minds of new generations. He takes hope from recent polls that say the fastest growing religion in the states is the “nones”, which may include a lot of Pagans & New Agers. But, some of those unaffiliated respondents could be candidates for something more in tune with the times. Perhaps the spiritually-atuned among them are ready for the empirical morality of Humanism, and the logical deity of Deism. 

End of Post 40

Human by evolution.

Humanist by Choice.

6. Moral Agency :
Moral agency is an individual's ability to make moral judgments based on some notion of right and wrong and to be held accountable for these actions. A moral agent is "a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_agency

7. Slave of the Passions :
Normally, ponderous human reason serves as a fact-checker for quick & easy Intuition. But when intuitions clash, inter-subjective conflicts arise, or cognitive dissonance occurs, calm reasoning is the only way to break the deadlock.

“Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the “slave of the passions””___David Hume