I have read this three times and still not sure what is being said. I do understand the very end in that classical theism provides a coherent morality.
Is this one philosopher talking to another? I don’t see how it is talking to the common person.
Nearly all alternative morality that is different from classical theism is power oriented. I could imagine some power countenancing the humiliation of old women or at least accepting it if it enhanced their power.
A indication that power rules - if one went to Tashkent, they could see a featured statue of Tamarlane who is credited with killing about 5% of the human population of the time. Mao and Stalin are still both celebrated in various parts of the world. Yet, both are mass murderers.
Aside: freedom was not part of the world till recently so including it in features of reality that we have reason to believe is actually real would seem at odds with traditional reality not a feature of it. Also classical theism did not recognize it.
In other words classical theism was mistaken about part of the world. Current theism recognizes the importance of freedom. I believe that freedom of humans is a built in aspect of the natural world but the Church did not see it that way as it adopted Plato’s view of the world that assigns most humans to inferior positions in this world. But once the English revolution of the 1600s espoused it to some extent, the western world gradually came to accept it and reluctantly parts of the rest of the world then adopted it.
A second aside: the modern world only emerged once freedom started to become more common in 17th century England. This led to the Industrial Revolution a century and half later first in England and then in its colonies. The epitome of this was Penn’s new world colony that invited tens of thousands of poor German farmers to come live in Pennsylvania. I told this to a table of Philadelphians yesterday and not one had heard it before but recognized it as true once they heard it. After all Germantown is a major section of Philadelphia (but no Germans live there anymore.)
I have read this three times and still not sure what is being said. I do understand the very end in that classical theism provides a coherent morality.
Is this one philosopher talking to another? I don’t see how it is talking to the common person.
Nearly all alternative morality that is different from classical theism is power oriented. I could imagine some power countenancing the humiliation of old women or at least accepting it if it enhanced their power.
A indication that power rules - if one went to Tashkent, they could see a featured statue of Tamarlane who is credited with killing about 5% of the human population of the time. Mao and Stalin are still both celebrated in various parts of the world. Yet, both are mass murderers.
Aside: freedom was not part of the world till recently so including it in features of reality that we have reason to believe is actually real would seem at odds with traditional reality not a feature of it. Also classical theism did not recognize it.
In other words classical theism was mistaken about part of the world. Current theism recognizes the importance of freedom. I believe that freedom of humans is a built in aspect of the natural world but the Church did not see it that way as it adopted Plato’s view of the world that assigns most humans to inferior positions in this world. But once the English revolution of the 1600s espoused it to some extent, the western world gradually came to accept it and reluctantly parts of the rest of the world then adopted it.
A second aside: the modern world only emerged once freedom started to become more common in 17th century England. This led to the Industrial Revolution a century and half later first in England and then in its colonies. The epitome of this was Penn’s new world colony that invited tens of thousands of poor German farmers to come live in Pennsylvania. I told this to a table of Philadelphians yesterday and not one had heard it before but recognized it as true once they heard it. After all Germantown is a major section of Philadelphia (but no Germans live there anymore.)