RE: Atheism and objective ethics
June 17, 2011 at 7:28 am
(This post was last modified: June 17, 2011 at 7:31 am by Anymouse.)
(June 15, 2011 at 12:28 pm)martin02 Wrote: Greetings.
I recently attended a debate, theists vs atheists on "Can there be good without God?"
Questions were taken from the floor at the end. One attendee stated that if the atheists were only willing to argue subjective good, they were giving the debate to the theists.
While I agree this would likely have seen the theists win on points, it was neither picked up by them, nor was the debate formal enough to see either side declared winners.
Can atheists argue for an objective ethics?
Comments?
My So. Baptist neigbour goes in for this question. (She doesn't go in for such deep thought as "objective good" versus "subjective good." To her, good is a function of God, not a function of good.)
It doesn't matter how I phrase the idea that "I am good because it both pleases me to be so, and I wish to be treated the same way," nor however my fun-loving and atheistic wife phrases it, the neighbour cannot fathom a concept of "good" beyond her (somewhat skewed) Christian idea of good.
She recognises that we are "good people" (we aren't stealing lollies from babies or anything like that) and has real trouble associating that with my wife the atheist and me the Wiccan. In her mind, atheists are merely deluded and Wiccans devil-worshipers, which doesn't square with how we treat her. It is more a trial of her faith to accept that such people can also be "good," and very disturbing to her she cannot really find anything to show we are not "good." - James
"Be ye not lost amongst Precept of Order." - Book of Uterus, 1:5, "Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her."
