Subject: Moral Progress
Date: 4 Jan 2004
From: Flash Light
To: Dr. Chic Schissel

Dr. Schissel:

We have in common a desire for the world to become more rational. We differ in approach. If it were only the victims of serial killers who had to be sacrificed to accomplish your solution, your approach might be compelling. Factor in the millions who were killed by secular leaders such as Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and their ilk, and the trade off you propose becomes daunting.

Is progress possible among religions, or are they only a "roadblock to moral progress?" I maintain history shows progress is possible. As evidence I submit that ritual human sacrifice on the alter is no longer practiced by any recognized religion, and even fundamentalists have given up practicing slavery, although slavery is clearly sanctioned in the Bible.

I want to accelerate such progress by encouraging dialogs between theists and secularists. My approach is to develop a common vocabulary by using the metaphor of software. My hope is secularists and theists will one day be able to co-exist without having to demonize each other for their choice of neural operating systems.

If your retreat to "Escapism" was only temporary, and you are still willing to defend "Secular Humanism," I assume that you still regard your neural operating system as "true" compared to that of the theists. I assume the subroutines of your neural operating system are not called by the names of gods. but by names like "justice," "fairness," "morality," "altruism," etc. Are these not also concepts with no material embodiment to prove their "reality?" Is not their only manifestation the effect they have on their believers? Do they not require faith from believers to exist?

Do you still maintain that the secular operating system represents progress because it is based less on faith and more on "truth" than that of the theists? Why then is the reality of secularists like Dahmer so different than yours? Why do secular leaders like Stalin, Pol Pot et al. offer no moral progress over the worst theists? The victims of misguided secularists are more numerous than the victims of the current jihad. From the evidence of history, secularists appear to have no greater claim to accomplishing moral progress than theists.

If your response to this e-mail is to move further toward Escapism and Denial, allow me to offer an alternative: Logical Pantheism. No belief in the supernatural required.

Respectfully,

Flash