We're doomed without a green religion | Andrew Brown
Arguments about climate change show up the incoherence of any purely individual moralityThe justification for burning heretics was perfectly simple: dissent threatened the survival of society. Nothing was worse than anarchy. This is a viewpoint most people in the West today find pretty much incomprehensible. It is a self-evident truth to them that morality must be a matter of individual choice. And if you believe that, the arguments around the Tim Nicholson case are very difficult to resolve. If there is a moral imperative to preserve the human race, or as much of it as possible, collective consequences must follow. It is not enough for us to do the right thing. Others must as well. If you don't believe that, then there is no point in agitating for success in Copenhagen.But if collective consequences follow, others must be forced to do things against their will by our moral imperatives. This...
Read the whole article on The Guardian - Science
More from The Guardian - Science
Related
- Who shalt not kill? Brain power leads to level-headedness when faced with moral dilemmasMon, 9 Jun 2008, 12:21:53 EDT
- The 2 worlds of kids' moralsMon, 2 Mar 2009, 12:32:49 EST
- U of T psychologists shed light on origins of moralityThu, 26 Feb 2009, 14:36:02 EST
- For nano, religion in US dictates a wary viewSun, 7 Dec 2008, 13:37:07 EST
- Growing up amid war affects children's moral developmentTue, 15 Jul 2008, 9:08:32 EDT