Re: virus: Truth or consequences.

Nathan Russell (frussell@frontiernet.net)
Fri, 07 Aug 1998 23:43:21 -0400


Tim Rhodes wrote:

> Nate wrote:
>
> >To determine if something is moral or not I usually ask, does this aid
> >or hinder thinking?
>
> I usually ask, "Does this aid or hinder the advancement of rhubarb."
>
> -Prof. Tim

I think an important question would be "Do I have the knowledge and wisdom
to go about this properly?" i.e. if you know nothing about rhubarb, see
someone eating rhubarb in the park and observe that they seem to be taking
pleasure in eating it and harming nobody, you could conclude that it must
be right and beneficial to eat rhubarb, and so you gather up their
discarded leaves and begin giving them to the neighborhood children to be
kind and avoid waste, your lack of knowledge has led you into an immoral
effect, even in spite of a generous intent. Is this making sense? To
continue the analogy, some fundamentalists see us as foolish and wasteful
to discard their poisonous 'knowledge'.

--
Nathan Russell
frussell@frontiernet.net

"It is now time for the human race to enter the Solar System" -Dan Quayle on the possibility of a manned mission to Mars

(Well, Danny Boy, the rest of us are already here, but we'll wait for you)