origin of species & moral judgement

NPR did a story on the impact magnets have on moral judgement. Participants were asked two different questions regarding a moral situation: one story where the person intended to cause harm and the other were the harm was caused unintentionally. As you can imagine the participants included the intent of the person when placing blame. So if I purposely hit you with my car but you survive, you would most likely say I was horrible compared to me accidentally hitting you with my car and you die. Any way, the researchers received expected responses from the participants. However, these responses changed when a magnetic pulse was applied to a part of the brain located near the right ear. This part of the brain is responsible for understanding other's intentions. So, when this was done while the participants listen to the story, they were more likely to ignore intention and focus on the end result. I was fascinated with this story as it simplifies moral judgement down to a small part of your brain! Not your ethical standing. Not your environment. Not your spirituality or religious beliefs.

And now onto the supercollider! In Geneva they will start smashing tiny particles into each other at unbelievable speeds creating mind-dumbing amounts of energy. What this does is take these tiny particles and turn them into even tinier particles which will allow scientists to study the universe in a way never done before. When in full use, scientists will be able to basically study the big bang theory in a lab setting. And if all goes as is hoped, they might even get down to the so-called god particle which is what is said to have allowed matter to come from energy of the big bang.

Just think! With these two scientific experiments, we might have real answers to questions of our origin and our moral standings and maybe will stop relying on stories that were created thousands and thousands of years ago to help explain the unknown.


~Steph