DISCLAIMER Brevity Invasion What is Sanctity Sacred Things
DISCLAIMER - Brevity - Invasion
What is Sanctity? Sacred Things - Temples - Books - Marriage - Life
What is Sanctity? Temporal comparison - Ancient Roman Temple of Jupiter is sacred - Modern Muslim Depictions of the Prophet
SANCTITY DEFINED There are things in the world that must not be violated in any way – doing so will result in (divine) punishment - Violation: Intellectually or physically probed - Violation: Shorten or restrict in any way
What unites Roman and Muslim: reflects the divine Same for previous examples: books, places, etc. Life itself, as we will see, is also a reflection on the divine Upwards, celestial deities
Geological Deities?
Sanctity as a Comfort Lens 1. It maintains stability: ‘this will be here forever, maintained in this way. ’ 2. Explains the horror of the world “The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible. ” - Bertrand Russell
Horror of the World?
Sanctity of (Human) Life - Every society basically stated this, though with qualification (only way societies survive) - Not fully believed: Infanticide, some human beings not really persons (blacks, women, slaves, etc. ) SPECIESM?
Influence of Theism - Always wrong to kill an innocent human being (because god says so) - Reflection on divine: made in god’s image, have souls, etc.
Difference? - No example of a human being who is not sacred - Other books, buildings, etc. - Ancient Greek propitiations
CRITICISM 1: The Sacred as Superstition - Not maintaining or doing something invites bad things, with no obvious causal connection - Maintaining or doing something will result in good things, with no obvious causal connection
Superstition - R. E. Shay (philosopher and cynic) ‘Keep the rabbit’s foot if you want, just remember: it didn’t work for the rabbit. ’
The Rabbit’s Foot Dilemma - Does not work out for the fully fleshed creature it belongs to - Purpose, Meaning, etc. - Sanctity
The Rabbit’s Foot Dilemma - Creature: Religion - Splits and disagreements on the sacred - Protestant, Catholic - Sunni, Shi’a
The Secular Sphere - Not dismissive of religion, but does not privilege religion. - Platform of reason is often the gallows of religion
The Secular Sphere - Pluralistic society: multi-faith and no faith - If it does not work out for religion’s (Rabbit’s Foot), what use does it serve in secular sphere? - Non-adherents to sanctified phenomenon will violate it: Galileo, stem-cells, etc.
The Secular Sphere - See it in policies and places that affect all our lives, e. g. medical dilemmas, newspapers, novels, etc. - Woven into fabric, maintained because of the lens of comfort.
Upsetting Axioms ‘A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. ’ - Thomas Pain, Common Sense
CRITICISM 2 Sanctity as Religious Morality THREE Problems
CRITICISM 2 Sanctity as Religious Morality 1. Tautological ‘Good because god says so’ ‘Good because it’s good’ EMPTY!
CRITICISM 2 Sanctity as Religious Morality 2 & 3 Euthyphro’s Dilemma ‘Do the gods sanction it because it is right, or is it right because the gods sanction it? ’ 2. If right, gods are unnecessary 3. If gods sanction, same as 1, and arbitrary, e. g. Rev. Paul Hill ‘god told me so’
CRITICISM 2 Sanctity as Religious Morality THREE Problems tautological arbitrary unnecessary
Morality without a god? - No reverence for human life – murder, fraud, horror and Amy Winehouse? - The rest of the conference
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - Scenario - Ethesioneuroblastoma - Chantal Sebire ‘One would not allow an animal to go through what I have endured. ’ 2008 to President Nicholas Sarkozy.
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - Sentence of 2 years of pain, inevitably leading to death - Double-standards: alcohol, driving, etc. - ‘Killing and letting die’ largely nonsensical distinction - Kill mass murderers, starve innocent (nonsensical)
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? Killing is neutral term: taking of someone’s life Murder = killing + doing it against consent (sometimes without) Move on from distinction that says killing innocent people is bad – it is sometimes obligatory!
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - Infants born with severe spina bifida - Allow for abortion but not infanticide?
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - Reagan’s Moral Majority: all babies must be given life-saving treatment, irrespective of disability. - Opposed by majority of American paedatrics (76% thought unnecessary, 66% interfering)
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - 60% thought it did not take into account the suffering of the child.
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - 60% thought it did not take into account the suffering of the child.
How does the sanctity-of-life doctrine affect me? - Quantity not quality - Chantal in France - Infants bound for death or worse* * Some children who suffer spina bifida can have up to 40 major surgeries before they become teenagers. This is needed to keep them alive.
What I am not Advocating - Not advocating murder of infants - Not advocating murder of people with disabilities - The most important element we must defend is autonomy
Autonomy Defended - Make it a choice - Get over the fact that something special about humans (and persons) - Get over the fact that killing is automatically bad
Where do we go from here? - Our life to decide - Formulate policies not premised on overtly-emotional reactions - Policies not premised on bad religious morality
HUMAN FRAME
- Slides: 36
