Rational Humans Can Derive Humane and Effective Rules without the Bible
Kevin R. Henke
October 13, 2022
In Henke (2022b) and Henke (2022au), I stated the following:
“Lundahl (2022a) also makes the following statement to me about nature and our consciousness:
“Other takeaway in CSL's [C.S. Lewis’] Miracles, you carry around yourself two very clear indications that nature is not all there is - neither reason nor morality can be reduced to matter and energy affected by each other in accordance with laws of physics and chemistry. The ‘hard problem of consciousness’ - to take it from a somewhat different angle - remains hard. We don't just need an intelligent designer who arranged our brains for optimal consciousness, we need (for purposes we take for granted, like refuting or like blaming) something other than just brain arrangements in our consciousness.”
I fully admit that I’m no expert on consciousness. Contrary to what Lundahl (2022a) and Lewis (1960, his chapter 3, etc.) indicate in this quotation, our thoughts are electrical and our brains are matter. Lewis (1960, chapter 3, etc.) questioned the ability of humans to rationally understand our surroundings through naturalism and he argued that we should seriously consider that miracles occur. However, Lewis (1960) had the burden of evidence to demonstrate his claims for miracles and he failed to do so. Now, investigators are still looking for miracles at revival meetings, among psychics, at supposedly haunted houses, and elsewhere, and not finding any evidence for them.
Who we are, including our reason and moral values, arise from interactions between our brains and our surroundings. We observe, test and confirm with the help of others our conclusions about events in nature. Our brains, thoughts and surroundings are all ultimately controlled by the laws of chemistry and physics. That is, we can imagine what it would be like to be able to magically levitate objects only using our thoughts, but the laws of chemistry and physics don’t actually allow us to do it. Nevertheless, there is a danger that when we recognize that our brains are nothing but matter and energy that we might be tempted to trivialize this electrical activity and think that it has no serious consequences. That is, considering how much damage the electrical activity in Putin’s brain is doing to millions of people in the Ukraine, we cannot underestimate the power of a single human brain to manipulate other humans and weapons in his/her environment. This is why millions of people hope that Putin’s brain soon ceases to function and that more rational and empathetic brains will replace him.
Our morals and reasoning abilities arise in response to our surroundings, including how we interact with other humans. By getting confirmation from our fellow humans and doing experimental testing, we can make reliable discoveries about our environment. We can send spacecraft to Moon, understand why severe earthquakes occur in certain areas and not others, and we understand what causes influenza, etc. The supernatural is not needed to explain these discoveries. Because of the power of the human brain and our ability to adequately understand what’s going on in our surroundings, we can have a huge impact on our surroundings. Unfortunately, humans can also do extensive damage to our environment.
No gods, angels, demons or a Bible are also needed to figure out how people should try to function in our environments. We should develop rules (morality) through reason and not Biblical dogma so that we can live peacefully with each other and our environment. No sane person wants to live in poverty, misery and violence. Ukrainian soldiers are the only sane individuals wanting to move to eastern Ukraine.
We should also recognize that not all brains function well. Mental illness and deficiency are real. As rational research shows, chemicals, traumatic experiences and genetics can certainly cause mental illness. Demons aren’t required.” [my emphasis]
Lundahl (2022s) then gives the following response to my bolded statement:
“Our interaction with other humans may certainly impact our more or less perfect acquisition of objective and universally valid rules - but cannot produce them. Precisely as our acquisition of a native language is highly impacted by interaction with people (usually parents) already having such a thing. This is a very good reason why humanity could never have acquired language from scratch, as I argued in a question (open like an "open letter" but somewhat closed in possibility of answers, like a "rhetoric question") that I posed to David Peterson. No, not the shrink Jordan Peterson, but the inventor of Dothraki (more than GRRM himself, who only provided stray words). And precisely as grammar cannot arise from even animality (much less mere matter "self organising"), so logic and moral universals cannot so.”
No. Human thought is quite capable of making observations, using empathy for their fellow humans, rationally deciding what is preferable for the social cohesion of a group, and then producing rules to maintain harmony. If you want to get along with others in the group, you don’t insult and hit them. Three-year olds figure this out on the playground without a Bible. Anytime two or more people are living together in a group, you have to come up with rules to have harmony. You can’t have a stable society that tolerates theft and murder, so that’s why they are universally restricted within groups. Some rules are certainly more effective and humane than others. People can often rationally come up with better and more humane rules that what are in the Old Testament (e.g., Exodus 21:21; Leviticus 21:9; Hitchens 2007, pp. 97-107).
As I previously mentioned in Henke (2022ck), interested readers should consult the biology literature for accurate information on the evolution of human speech rather than just taking Mr. Lundahl’s uninformed proclamations at face value. As just a few examples, Pagel (2017), Bowling et al. (2020) and their references provide useful information on this topic. Furthermore, it’s totally premature to proclaim “God did it!” or invoke the likely fairy tale at the Tower of Babel as an explanation for the origin of languages.
References:
Bowling, D.L., J.C. Dunn, J.B. Smaers, M. Garcia, A. Sato, G. Hantke, S. Handschuh, S. Dengg, M. Kerney, A.C. Kitchener, M. Gumpenberger, and W.T. Fitch. 2020. “Rapid Evolution of the Primate Larynx?”, PLOS Biology, v. 18, n. 8, e3000764.
Hitchens, C. 2007. God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything; Twelve: New York, USA, 307pp.
Lewis, C.S. 1960. Miracles, 2nd ed., printed 1974: Harper One: HarperCollinsPublishers, 294pp.
Pagel, M. 2017. “Q&A: What is Human Language, When Did It Evolve and Why Should We Care?” BMC Biology, 15:64, 6pp, doi: 10.1186/s12915-017-0405-3.