Comments | tacit: Oh, Joss: "Morality doesn't exist without the fear of death"

tacit

Oh, Joss: "Morality doesn't exist without the fear of death"

Sep 13, 2014 13:56

A couple of years ago, during a lackadaisical time in my life when I was only running two businesses and wasn't on tour to support a book I'd just coauthored, I sat down with my sweetie Zaiah and we watched all the episodes of the Joss Whedon television show Dollhouse over the course of a week or so ( Read more... )

philosophy, musings, religion

Comments 9

ashbet September 13 2014, 22:48:07 UTC

I am not religious in the slightest (I have some spiritual practices that are my own, but I don't have any kind of external-dogma religion), and I'm completely with you on this ( ... )

polydad September 14 2014, 02:23:43 UTC

With you on this one; didn't fear it even *before* I tried it on for size. Didn't like the fit; will have to wear it *eventually* but do plan on putting that off for as long as feasible, for the same reason you cite: I've got more to do than I'm going to have time to do it as it is.

I'm still not entirely sure what religion *is*; not sure whether this is a good place to get into that one, either.

best,

Joel. Who seems not to have had y'all over for dinner yet. Why?

peristaltor September 14 2014, 02:29:30 UTC

You really must see the movie Flight From Death. In it, they showed some research that concerned the thought expressed in the article to which you linked: "They want to feel that when they depart there will be something staying on that is eternal, a sort of immortality ( ... )

tacit September 14 2014, 18:13:16 UTC

Wow. That's fascinating! What an interesting study. I do need to see that movie.

petemosq September 14 2014, 06:32:34 UTC

Some interesting food for thought.

http://youtu.be/phwHEE-Zz_A
http://youtu.be/ryA8PafooQ4

tatjna September 14 2014, 23:34:23 UTC

I agree with what you're saying, but I'm not sure that fear of death necessarily equates to fear of punishment. I can imagine people fearing death because it's unknown, might hurt, don't want to leave their families, and because the majority of living creatures have a survival instinct that says "Stay alive! Don't die!"

I agree that even that isn't really a cause of morality, although there's probably an evolutionary argument related to effective social structures as a means of survival in there somewhere.