(urth) 5HC : Skinner, Turing (fwd)

[maru]

James Wynn wrote:

>>We cannot desire to be good, virtous people, with all the concomitant
>>restrictions that imposes?
>>    
>>
>
>Sure we can -- Jesus said we were "blessed" if we did -- but that desire
>strikes me as quite different from the desires to eat "whatever I like"
>(note that that idiom wasn't picked out the air) or otherwise "do what comes
>naturally". It is not fun. It does not feel good in the same way. It is not
>the pursuit of happiness by any direct route (who said happiness cannot be
>caught by those who pursue it?).  The desire to be good is of a _higher
>order_. I do not think it is reasonable to toss it in the bin with those
>desires I have as "a brute beast", as the Apostle Paul put it.
>
>~ Crush
>  
>
That is entirely your perogative.  Myself, I see people desiring to be 
happy. So, they act good so others do
not harm them, so they can get things they want that less-devious 
maneuvering wouldn't get them, and
in a religious context, to get to the infinite bliss of heaven.
Perhaps this strikes you as entirely too cynical.

~Maru