{"id":2049,"date":"2019-11-19T10:57:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T10:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2019-11-19T10:57:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T10:57:45","slug":"a-rational-moral-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2049","title":{"rendered":"A rational moral compass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The case for a moral compass we work out for ourselves through reason and compassion (Ilford Recorder Faith Column. 28.11.19)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">Do\nhumanists, with our lack of faith, lack a moral compass? Some struggle to\nunderstand how our values can equal values for which divine authority is\nclaimed.&nbsp; The perplexity is mutual.\nHumanists don\u2019t see why, for example, stealing being \u2018wrong\u2019 needs to be spelt\nout on a tablet of stone. We see it\u2019s \u2018wrong\u2019 simply by looking at the\nconsequences of theft with reason and compassion. Moral decisions are made this\nway umpteen times a day without divine guidance. You don\u2019t have to identify as a humanist to think like one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">Being able to work things out for ourselves, and being able to change our minds, is a positive advantage where knowledge and understanding is ever-developing. Many contemporary issues are beyond the imagination of those <a href=\"https:\/\/reneelertzman.com\/anxiety\/valium-10-mg\/\">buy diazepam uk only<\/a> alive when the scriptures were written.\u00a0 The holy books do not contemplate questions posed by, say, genetic engineering, unsustainable population growth, or the ability to prolong life in the cruelest of circumstances using modern medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">In fact religious morality can change too. Thankfully many of faith have abandoned harsh scriptural orthodoxy on issues like homosexuality, birth control, adultery and heresy.\u00a0 Even the attitude to theft is now more nuanced, the strict retribution of the Abrahamic tradition being tempered by compassion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">Where the religious and humanists are at one is that having a moral compass is important.\u00a0 And most of us are probably somewhere on the humanist spectrum in our\u00a0\u00a0 pursuit of a fairer, kinder, and more sustainable world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul Kaufman<br>Chair East London Humanists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The case for a moral compass we work out for ourselves through reason and compassion (Ilford Recorder Faith Column. 28.11.19)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-x3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2050,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}