Atheists Cannot be Moral Redux
Hi All,
We had a discussion many moons ago about atheists and morality and a lot has happened since then. I reached some new conclusions (which I'll withhold for now so I don't poison the water) and at least one other poster here has some new ideas about it.
So, I was wondering what the prevailing opinion is out there on this topic. Do you believe that atheists can be "moral"? Is it impossible for an atheist to be truly moral? Is "morality" something to which adherents have a valid claim? The infamous Dawkins and Harris had a discussion at Oxford about this about a year or so ago that was very good and I would also be interested in what anyone thinks of what was discussed there.
Thanks and all are welcome.
- kk
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on -
Hey Jessica,
So, your "experience" and my "experience" could be quite different and we could both act quite differently based on those different experiences but nevertheless we could both be acting morally?
- kk
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on
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Jessica,
Okay, so say my father leaves me and my mom when I'm 12. And say your father leaves you and your mom when you're 12. Same experience. But you're a girl, I'm a boy. So, we react differently and our "human experience", even though it was superficially the same, could result in different moral conclusions, say, such as our individual moral beliefs about marriage.
- kk
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on
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Ahhhhhh, nice. okay. Now I understand. I don't know why I was assuming it was on an individual level. ;-)
- kk
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Permalink Reply by Daniel on -
Evolutionary processes are responsible for animals.
animals have behaviors that are produced through evolutionary processes.
Humans are animals.
Morality is part of human behavior.
Therefore you can explain human morality through evolutionary models.
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on
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Hey Daniel,
This is very close to how I am looking at it. I agree that we have little choice but to start there, if we assume the concept of morality is valid in the first place.
- kk
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on -
OBAMA WON!!!!!
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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Hey, I'm putting it all over the board! Ignore it! Discuss around it! But remember, you heard it here --
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on
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Hey Jessica, someone by the name of "Sarah" has hijacked your account :-) - kk
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on
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Hey - I heard, our polls out here only closed about 30 minutes ago. That's pretty fast - kk
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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Well, in all modesty, a little clairvoyance helps --
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Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on
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Arch, and by the way, why don't you chime in? - kk
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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Chime in? The most immoral person I know, discussing morality?
To mix Shakespearean quotations, here's all I know about morality (it's one you have to think about a bit):
"Nothing ever is right nor wrong, but thinking makes it so." "Aye, there's the rub."
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