ALIENS AND MORALITY



http://www.scifiideas.com/reviews/10-best-articles-last-years-alien-august/

Many of our currently accepted perceptions as to what is ethical and what is not, finds it origin based in religion. In the western world specifically the  Judeo-Christian morale and ethic concepts.

You may dismiss the influence of religion as the mere word conjures a universal dismissal from the “enlightened crowd” but such basic concepts as “killing  is wrong”, and the ability to decide what is evil and what is  good. Is expressed and codified first in the so called 10 commandments. The fifth century theologian Augustine of Hippo maintained that evil exists  only as a privation or absence of the good. Ignorance is an evil, but  is merely the absence of knowledge, which is good; disease is the  absence of health; callousness an absence of compassion. Since evil  has no positive reality of its own, it cannot be caused to exist, and  so God cannot be held responsible for causing it to exist. In its  strongest form, this view may identify evil as an absence of God, who  is the sole source of that which is good.

A related view, which draws on the Taoist concept of yin-yang, allows that  both evil and good have positive reality, but maintains that they are  complementary opposites, where the existence of each is dependent on  the existence of the other. Compassion, a valuable virtue, can only  exist if there is suffering; bravery only exists if we sometimes face  danger; self-sacrifice is called for only where others are in need. This is sometimes called the "contrast" argument.

So discussing any act like stealing, lying. Killing and everything in between two base concepts need to be defined for any civilization or sentient society. What is good and what is evil ? Is there an universal base line of ethics and  morale?

Is killing an ant different from killing a human being. If we apply human reason there are countless examples in human history where one ethic view is  replaced by another, contradicting the each other, yet seen as perfectly acceptable. Ideology can replace ethics. Wars are justified killing and evil and yet are seen as necessary to achieve a "new good".

So if ethics and morale are so easily overthrown and reversed on our planet alone, how many forms of ethics and morale might exist out there?

Ethics is a very subjective viewpoint. The common accepted base line does not even exist between two individuals. Do you think stealing is wrong? A  thief might argue otherwise. Is rape wrong? Vikings had no problem with that and so had many other societies. There are people who oppose abortion and have no problem calling for death penalty. Others claim even the slaughter of a cow is bad for your karma. Both view points are based in religion. What about pure logic, free of emotion? Now we are getting to the bottom of it, the concept of good and evil are based on emotions alone. Pure logic knows no concept of good and evil, but only cause and effect. Person A takes an object from person B. The concept of owning that object is  emotional. You owning that car is based on your emotional attachment and the effort you put into obtaining the money to get it. If you did not feel (emotion) the loss as negative you would not see the act as theft.

However the logical conclusion that the theft of the car makes you walk is a logical conclusion and the effect of the theft. So the logical response is to  take actions to rectify that ( taking car back, take another one and do so with all means at your disposal.

Since your actions are based on the sole need of a singular entity (you) a society based on pure logic would not be able to function unless it is a communal one (the needs of many ,,,)  So any society with individuals needs to develop "common rules" or "ethical  base lines"

And we come full circle –

Ethics are necessary but what form they may take could be as diverse as the shapes life took on.

VR