Tag Archives: Morality

Thoughts

Morality Presupposes Transcendence

Note: This series of Facebook comments began as a response to someone I’ve forgotten on a friend’s post that I’ve also forgotten. Through all my decade plus of spiritual doubt, I never lost confidence in—and still have never lost—the observation expressed in this post that without a transcendent reality beyond the material universe, there can be no rational basis for the concepts of Good an Evil. I only have my part of the exchange. Summary comments have been added for clarity. (DL, June 13, 2023).

What the quote [OP’s Name Redacted] posted addresses is a fundamental flaw with philosophical materialism. If there is no reality beyond the matter of this universe, then talking about good and evil is meaningless.

States of matter cannot be good or evil. They are simply configurations of atoms. A supernova doesn’t have moral quality, neither does an avalanche. Both are simply matter in motion.

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Academic Writing

Virtual Morality (2)

Making real choices in a virtual world

Note: This is the second of two papers on similar themes. (Read the first here.) I wrote both in the second year of my MA in English at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist Christian school I attended for my BA and MA. Both capture well the moral tenor of my upbringing and of my beliefs at that time. I was raised in evangelicalism and on a diet of Rush Limbaugh. But since that time and these writings, some of my views have changed in important ways. At the time I wrote this paper, the term “sexual preference” was still commonly used throughout society to refer to a person’s sexual orientation, and it would be ten more years before reading Andrew Sullivan opened my eyes to the reality of sexual orientation as an innate characteristic of a person rather than a preference chosen willfully. This piece mischaracterizes that reality completely in ways that are homophobic. Very strong condemnatory language about sin was common in my sphere and vocabulary then (and for some time afterwards), and I believed the traditional Christian teaching that homosexual behavior is sin. For that reason, this paper will no doubt be offensive to some readers. Although I no longer think or speak of homosexuality in the homophobic terms I used here, there’s no doubt that I did for a long time. This piece is a reflection of that fact about my past. In regards to the piece more broadly, some of the core philosophical thesis still resonates with me. I still believe America suffers the social effects and disruption that come from lack of a shared moral center or objective foundation for shared morality–we have spent decades growing increasingly divided over morality. But I’m no longer certain to what extent such an objective foundation exists or how to find it if it does, and lacking that certainty, I find it harder to be a moral dogmatist on many matters, not only sexuality. In addition, having been thoroughly disillusioned by many right-wing sex scandals since and also more historically informed, I no longer see Bill Clinton as uniquely bad in his behavior or the GOP as ingenuous in its moral outrage. But for the record, I still think he abused his power in immoral ways and that Esquire’s cover photo was an inappropriate, sly celebration of his ‘prowess.’ As a side note, after researching for this paper, one of the dean of men’s staff confronted me about my late-night Internet searches on my work computer that were apparently related to homosexuality in some way. Looking back, amusing, but awkward at the time. (DL, Sept. 18, 2021)

Perversity is acceptable in America; it’s the new freedom. Our honorable President has underscored this sobering reality yet again with his cover appearance on the December issue of Esquire magazine (a glossy purveyor of trendy American hedonism). The photo has been unofficially titled “Monica’s View,” and as incredible as it would have seemed to me two days ago, Clinton has indeed suavely offered his crotch to the American people.

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Gaming

Virtual Morality (1)

Making real choices in a virtual world

Note: This is the first of two papers on similar themes. (Read the second here.) I wrote both in the second year of my MA in English at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist Christian school I attended for my BA and MA. Both capture well the moral tenor of my upbringing and of my beliefs at that time. I was raised in evangelicalism and on a diet of Rush Limbaugh. But since that time and these writings, some of my views have changed in important ways. In regards to the argument of this paper, the most significant change is that I have lost my former confidence in the Bible as the absolute, objective moral frame of reference for humans. As a result, the core imperative of this paper no long works for me. However, I still to this day embrace and affirm the central observation that a person’s moral decisions in a virtual space or video game are not without implications for their real-world thinking about morality. I still believe what we pretend to think or do can affect what we actually think and do in the real world. (DL, Sept. 18, 2021)

In September 1987, Captain Picard’s Enterprise-D embarked on its maiden voyage. Captain James T. Kirk and his cronies had been replaced by a new crew with a new ship and new gadgets. Perhaps the most memorable of those new gadgets was a new kind of shipboard recreation chamber: the holodeck. A virtual-reality chamber featuring cutting-edge 24th-century technology, the holodeck used holograms, force fields, and semi-stable matter to create alternate realities indistinguishable from the real thing. It was a room where dreams came to life, and it quickly captured the imagination of Trekkers everywhere. Before long, the “holodeck” became verbal shorthand for the supreme realization of virtual reality.

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Thoughts

Christian, consider what you read

Note: This article, my first ever piece of published commentary on any topic, appeared in the Bob Jones University student newspaper, The Collegian (Vol 12, No 7), for which I was a staff writer my third and final undergraduate year. I don’t remember writing the piece, and if I had not had the opportunity recently to peruse the bound back issues of The Collegian at the university library, it would have remained forgotten. It is a good snapshot of my mindset during that period in my life, and the core issue of avoiding moral poison while interacting with fictional worlds has continued to be of interest to me, especially in the context of video games and shows. My current feelings toward shows like Game of Thrones and The Idol closely track my feelings then towards Anne Rice and Stephen King. (I have reduced the number of paragraphs in the original to better suit the wider columns of this format.) (DL, June 6, 2023).

Almost everybody likes to settle in with a good book every once in a while and forget the frustrations of the day. A well-written book paints a picture for our imagination in a way few things can. Unfortunately, while enjoying the pleasures books have to offer, we sometimes drop our guard and forget to consider what we read. As Dr. Bob pointed out in chapel recently, the world likes to hide its philosophy in sentimental packages that even Christians may find appealing. While this is an often-noted problem with Hollywood films, it’s equally so with worldly books.

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Gaming

Rome Mortal Combat

Note: I have been writing about video games in one form or another for most of my life. This piece was written for my junior high-school English class. The teacher of that class was excellent and had an extremely strong influence on my ability to write arguments clearly. I first learned the five paragraph essay (and the principles that form inculcates when well taught) from him. The three topics touched on in this piece–video games, ancient Rome, and morality–have continued to be important to me throughout my adult life. However as I have lost confidence in the Bible, finding the grounds from which to articulate a clear and authoritative moral vision in the absence of an authoritative holy book has been an ongoing challenge. (DL, Sept. 19, 2021)

2,000 years ago, two Roman galdiators are engaged in mortal combat.  With a quick feint, one of them darts forward and disembowels the other.  The watching thousands leap to their feet, cheering wildly.  Today, in the local arcade, two young men are engaged in “Mortal Kombat II”.  They are playing a video game that involves a fight to the death.  At the battle’s end, one of the characters reaches forward and rips the arms off the other.  Blood gushes, and bystanders erupt in laughter.  The striking similarities between the deadly forms of entertainment enjoyed by pagan Rome, and those forms of entertainment enjoyed today, illustrate how much the United States parallels the Roman Empire, and may be heading for the same end.

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