Hi Jose
It follows that if religious belief is an effective measure to address a lack of personality-stability then the actions of those who have a faith-based effectiveness can be attributed to their own personal abilities and characteristics. An analogy could be the case of the leaking car tyre. Once repaired it has an inflatability based on its nature as a car tyre not on the individual component of the patch. This leaves the greatness of the individuals you refer to, undiminished.
Regarding my opinion of how appropriate democracy is, in the context of the human qualities I have referred to, I have thought wistfully of the truth in the quote 'the majority is an ass' but firmly believe the diversity of humanity is a wonderful thing rather than a flaw. Hence, as democracy is an expression of diverse opinions, I think it also must be a wonderful thing. Please do not associate the rationalist perspective with the totalitarian one.
Finally, hard-wiring was one of three possibilities I identified (conditioning, programming or a developmental personality characteristic). There may be others. All these possibilities are not absolute states and hence will be more or less present. Some individuals learn to successfully apply logic to life. This must further diminish the effect of predilection.
Jonathan German-Morris
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From: Morales Jose <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: On Debating Religion
Date: 11/04/1999 22:33:31
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Reply to: Re: On Debating ReligionJonathan German-Morris wrote:
>It is my proposition that the overwhelming majority of humans are unable to muster the psychological integrity to be able to be entirely rational.This displays itself primarily in the symptom of religious dependency. I would welcome comments on whether this symptom is a preprogrammed trait,... or finally a symptom of the underlying instability of personality(ref: the proposition that complete personality-stability is aunachievable abstract).
Hey Jonathan,
1. I wonder what you think the consequences of your views are for thenotion of democracy?
2. I also wonder, in the light of your views, how you view some figuresin history...Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Bishop Romero etc.?In particular, what can one make of the impact of their faith-basedviews on their acts. Might they, like all believers, have "...theunderlying instability of personality"? I could probably think of it if I thoughtabout it long enough, but are there any rationalists who have anythinglike these folks impact upon society?
3. Even more interesting is if belief is hard wired, how is it that thosehuman beings who come to call themselves rationalists or even scientistsmanage to escape the hard wiring?
José F. Morales Ph.D.
NYU/UCSF [log in to unmask]
NCPRR/BoricuaNet [log in to unmask]
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