An interesting take on love. Has anyone ever loved someone who was not capable of propagating their genes? Is love utilitarian, and ultimately self-directed?
That post you quote was to point out a potential
reductio ad absurdum in Catholic theology: it is better to kill an embryo than let it live because the embryo will go to heaven and not suffer the moils of this life. Some Catholics try to evade this conclusion by invoking the concept of limbo, which I think is an *ad hoc *doctrine to defend the actions of an alleged “just” God. But it wouldn’t surprise me that God would deny the souls that once inhabited their embryo because of something that they could not control. Well, I guess God isn’t “fair” after all. That doesn’t surprise me; look at reality, for instance. Some people are bequeathed with hereditary diseases (I will use cystic fibrosis as an example here). Why? A person with cystic fibrosis inherited two copies of a defective chloride transport protein from their parents in a stochastic fashion. Of course, the person did not do anything to merit such a disorder, but Catholics trying to retain the facsimile of justice for their God will invoke “original sin,” a putative hereditary disorder, to defend that injustice.
Contrast that with the hypothetical
reductio ad absurdum of my ethical philosophy of negative utilitarianism. One reductio ad absurdum calls for the destruction of all life to eliminate pain. Another alleged *reductio ad absurdum *is that we should upload all animals into computers to eliminate the suffering caused by predation. The latter example was a reference to this talk:
cdn.libsyn.com/kssz/061211WesleyJSmith.mp3 (start playing at 8:45)
There are a few selfish things that I do:
For example, my breakfast today consisted of:
- ½ cup of oatmeal
- frozen berry mix (about one handful)
- about an ounce of walnuts
- and ¾ cup of DHA fortified soymilk (boiled)
Of course, those ingredients were chosen for selfish reasons. In addition, since I cannot find algae oil at a store, I also selfishly take fish oil capsule (precluding me from calling myself a vegetarian) and a multivitamin after that meal. Why? I have some hope that the world will eventually overcome its problems and I want to live long enough to see it.
I do not generalize “love” in that post. I posted that because I was reminded of this quote from a poster in IIDB:
I have a sincere question for you. My first born had a heart so badly deformed that had he been born 10 years earlier he wouldn’t have survived more than an hour after birth. Today he is 8 years old and other than blood pressure meds he is as normal as anyone.
To keep him alive for the first 2 years cost over 1 million dollars.
Do I think it is justifiable to pay 1 million for a single child? Nope.
Do I think it is justifiable to keep my son alive? Yup. What would you do if it were your child?
Emphasis his.
I think our natural love for our children is simply a characteristic that evolved in the African savannah to help preserved our genes. I question whether the love is actually virtuous in the Kantian sense as it is not motivated by duty; it is simply a means to an end to preserve the parent’s genes. It was questioning the nature of “love” for our children alluded to in the post I quoted, not love in general.
