Saturday 17 July 2010

More on the Living Dead

Ethics can't begin without consciousness. It's no using arguing with a zombie about Tillich or 'the ground of your being' or trying to convince it of the existence of God by some clever Thomist argument. It will just look extremely blank. What use has a zombie for categorical imperatives? Will it lead it to a bigger income or a better house? Will it put food onto its unconscious plate? It will not; so how can we blame the zombie for following its mechanical function? We cannot. To the zombie all these arguments wreak of delayed gratification, and that is not something zombies espouse.

Besides forgiving them 'for they know not what they do', we must also 'leave the dead to bury their own dead'. http://bible.cc/luke/9-60.htm In other words, just let zombies get on with their own business. They belong to the world of shadows.

Saturday 10 July 2010

God

If you are not actually conscious, of course you will not believe in God. But if you are conscious (you really know that you exist) then you will automatically realize that you are in the presence of something completely outside your league. The words something and someone are hopelessly inadequate but if you are conscious you will know what I mean.

The discovery of the mechanism of evolution, or the quasi-electrical circuitry of the brain, has absolutely nothing to do with this question.