(December 8, 2010 at 3:30 am)Micah Wrote: Hello. This is my first official post (besides my introduction post), so I apologize if I have asked something that another thread has answered.
I just became an Atheist maybe six months ago. Anyway, I have a friend who is devoutly Christian, and he has asked me some of the following questions, which I haven't been able to answer. I am hoping to find those answers here.
1.) If someone is an Atheist and believes in materialism, how do they account for thought? Is human thought just a chemical reaction?
Chemical and Electrical, Yes. Thought is a mechanism in the brain that evaluates concepts and models relative to other concepts, goals, sensory input etc. We experience this evaluation as thought and it is this experience/awareness of this process that is "consciousness", or at least part of it.
Quote:2.) If someone is an Atheist how do they define morality? Christianity's moral system is irrelevant to an Atheist, so how do they define what is right and wrong? Is there even a difference between right and wrong to an Atheist? If there is no creator of the universe, then there is no truth, so there can be no right and wrong for an Atheist, which means that an Atheist believes that cold blooded murder is just fine.
Firstly, truth has absolutely nothing to do with the existence of any person or being at all. In a world without intelligence what-so-ever truth is still what actually is. Any statement that accurately describes any aspect of anything at all is "true".
As for morality:
1. All values exist as a relationship between desires and states of affairs and/or objects.
2. Good is that which fulfills the desires in question. Bad is that which thwarts the desires in question. (Good for me is that which fulfills the most and/or strongest of my desires, Good for you is that which fulfills the most and strongest of your desires - This is the common form of "good")
3. Morality is a subset of value dealing with shared values (good for us).
4. Therefore, that which is morally good (good for us) is that which fulfills the most and/or strongest desires from competing sets of desires (has the greatest positive value).
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