Quote of the day II

by Andrew Sprung

"The people of Afghanistan are a world away from the nightmare of the Taliban. Citizens of Afghanistan have adopted a new constitution, guaranteeing free elections and full participation by women. The new Afghan army is becoming a vital force of stability in that country. Businesses are opening, health care centers are being established, and the children of Afghanistan are back in school, boys and girls."

George W. Bush
Address One Year After Operation Iraqi Freedom
March 19, 2004

Nuclear Winter

by Patrick Appel

Alan Robock and Owen Brian Toon report on new simulations:

People have several incorrect impressions about nuclear winter. One is that the climatic effects were disproved; this is just not true. Another is that the world would experience “nuclear autumn” instead of winter. But our new calculations show that the climate effects even of a regional conflict would be widespread and severe. The models and computers used in the 1980s were not able to simulate the lofting and persistence of the smoke or the long time it would take oceans to warm back up as the smoke eventually dissipated; current models of a full-scale nuclear exchange predict a nuclear winter, not a nuclear fall.

(Hat tip: 3QD)

Sexual Have Nots

by Patrick Appel

Pascal Bruckner feels that not sleeping around is now socially unacceptable:

Our parents used to lie about their morality, but we lie about our immorality. In both cases, there is a disparity between what we say and what we do. Unlike in Freud’s time, the cultural malaise no longer stems from instincts being crushed by the moral order—it is born from their very liberation. At a time when the ideal of self-fulfilment reigns triumphant everywhere, everyone compares themselves to the norm and struggles to live up to it. That means an end to guilt and the birth of anxiety. However, sexuality is generally still considered something that should remain undisclosed. But people either boast too much to be credible, or hide it for fear of appearing gauche at a time when one’s private life has become a sport of ostentation.

(Hat tip: 3QD)

In A Deterministic Universe

by Patrick Appel

A reader sketches out the ethical problems that arise:

First, in a deterministic universe, it does not make sense to use words like "should" or "ought". In order to say that someone should have done something in a certain situation, then it follows that she could have done something else instead. But in a deterministic universe, by definition, the person could not have done something else, because her actions, thoughts, and feelings were determined by the environment.

Second, in a deterministic universe, values are completely arbitrary. Any values we possess would be by definition merely a result of our environmental programming.

In that situation, subjective terms lose their meanings, since those meanings are defined only by values, which would be the result of arbitrary programming. Hence there are no absolutes (nor responsibilities), and therefore there can not exist concepts like right or wrong, good, better, or problem. If values are arbitrary, then words like "worth" have no meaning. These concepts are defined in terms of values.

Claiming that ethical values can be derived logically and rationally runs into some significant problems (something the new athiests have not come to terms with, it seems). For example, what seems logical to us would only seem so when judged according to a specific pattern of expectations and definitions we inherit from our environments.

Critically, one can not look to science to provide suggestions for the bedrock principles of societal ethics and morality. Scientific inquiry is very powerful, but it does not give answers to questions like that. Certainly, it is possible to logically derive ethical guidelines from a first principle, such as the golden rule for example, but there is no way to scientifically/logically derive that first principle itself…the first axioms have to be accepted on faith.

What, exactly, is scientific about any ethical first principle? For example, what is scientific about "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"? What scientific experiment could demonstrate the truth or falsity of this statement? What is the scientific answer to what is "right" or "good" in a given situation?

Why would the golden rule be more "scientific" than a first principle of might makes right, for example? Why, scientifically, should people be treated equally? Especially if people are to be nothing more than a transient arrangement of mental (or energy) states that are mere epiphenomenon determined by the interplay of forces and particles through time in an unending sequence of causes stretching back to the beginning of time? Accepting a determinist universe would be a tall order for anyone.