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Sat 9 Feb, 2008 01:10 pm
I was watching a documentary about a family who went swimming in Newzeland. When they were swimming these dolphins started gathering round them, forming a circle. They didn't understand why these dolphins were doing this, it was only when the dad, looked into the water, and saw a shark swimming under them.
He then began to realize that the dolphins were actively protecting them from the shark. The dolphins were slapping their tails on the water, warning off the shark.
The dolphins, after forty minutes, swam away, because the shark had given up, and swam off.
It has been shown that the part of the brain that produces emotion in humans, has developed to such an extent in dolphins that they actually feel empathy towards other species.
Would the dolphins act, of protecting the humans, be considered a moral one? If I protected you from danger, that would be considered a moral act, to put my life in harms way, to try and say yours.
What could this mean for our "source", of morality?
Is it really God, even if you believe in God, I don't think dolphins believe in God?
My wrap of all that....
Heres what I think:
Morality isn't necessarily about feeling watched by a god...so therefore one must do good. It is about karma and how other people see you. If you do good, you will have good done to you or for you. And if you do good, others will see that you've done good and not JUST know and remember you for it, but learn by what you do and consider those same type of actions for themselves. Its like a smile. You smile at a stranger, and they usually smile back. Kindness and empathy are ideals that we have so we can live in harmony the best we can (human or not).
In another sense, Dolphins have bigger brains than humans. Its quite possible that they may feel like their god is watching them too. But I truly believe this instinct is more derived out of LOVE than anything else. After all, its the only universal emotion that we're sure about.
Hmm... If the story is at all true, I wonder i the dolphins had done the same if it was a seals or sealions instead of humans.
I do believe that there are more to dolphins than we know about, but to say anything about the creature's intentions, if any, would be to speculate. At least in my case...
The people who research the dolphins are almost certain that they were actively protecting them, and there had been a couple of other incidents as well, in the red sea I think.
This is a fun one...
For years I have struggled with the "moral source" dilemma. It seems that in our culture (and many others I'm sure) morality is defined by god. I rejected the idea that god had a capital "G" many years ago. I rejected that god dictates anything. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot escape the fact that I grew up in a Christian family and was reared on that morality. Much of it I reject, but some of it is still there. Is it there because it is true? Is it there because my value system evolved in a way that was parallel to some of it? If I was raised in the wild by wolves, would I still think that murder was wrong? It's an interesting conundrum.
My daughters have grown up in a family that is identified as Pagan. They have heard the phrase "ten commandments" and know that it is a Judeo-Christian thing, but I would doubt that any of them could recite one. If you asked them basic questions pointed at morality, much of it would be in sync with common conceptions of morality (lying, cheating, stealing) but would probably diverge at subjects regarding kindness, respect, love, sexuality, equality, et cetera.
So, did what the dolphins do constitute a moral act? I like to think so. Are their morals defined by god? I would say not. The "chewy" question here is, how may of us (morally upright) humans would defend a fellow human or another creature from impending doom? I would say, not many. Oddly I think that most of us would not help *because* of our moral base. The same base that assumes dominion over morals, teaches us that death is the punishment for sin. I would contend that the only ones who would jump into that shark-pit are true heroes and those to don't view death as a punishment.
Another bit of humor here is the idea that they are defending another species. If we were at a beach and a shark was preying on a dolphin, would a group of humans circle and defend? Hell no, that's the natural order!!! Based on our highly evolved intellect, we would run like hell and watch the carnage from the shore. Change the characters to shark and human, and we would still run like hell, watch the carnage and then demand that the DNR hunt that bastard down and kill it. Change the characters again to an Islamic extremist (predator) and a bible class (prey) and we would still swim to shore, watch the carnage and then spend years exacting revenge. Change it again, to an ill adjusted middle class white man (preditor) and a vagrant (prey) and we would, You guessed it! Swim to shore and watch the carnage. Then sit around wondering who would clean it up so we could go swimming again. This stupid, simplistic ditty is of course to my original point that our morals are "flexible" in our culture we don't value life the way we claim to, we have to define it, label it, compare it to our label and then determine it's worth. I think the dolphins have one up on usÂ…