Theists: Hitchens Wager

[Edwardo Piet]

Name one moral action or statement that a believer can perform or state that an atheist can not.

Any action motivated by love for the Lord. Checkmate.

That actually works with me because I'm a consequentialist so even if moral behavior is motivated by a delusion it's still moral behavior. And if that delusion is the delusion of theism then that works.

The only problem perhaps, is the question "Would they do the exact same thing if they weren't a theist?". Like, for instance, a theist attibutes their moral action to the imaginary being in their head... because they think that being exists. But it's still their mind really that is responsible. So if they didn't believe in God then they would rightfully attribute it to their mind.

So my suggestion here is that the theist is merely externalizing their own mind. They are attributing to God, what is really going on in their own head.

Still, if it is really the case that they wouldn't perform the moral action unless they believed in their delusion.... then you win.

And at least in some cases, I think you might actually be right. Let's imagine a really shitty person like a total psychopath without a conscience... they only do good because they believe God will punish them if they don't. That technically is a theist without a conscience who performs a moral action, or avoids performing an immoral action when they wouldn't do so if they were an atheist. So it's because of their theism.

At least in the psychopath case it seems like your example works perfectly.

Of course, I am a consequentalist though... so I don't care about the fact the person is motivated by a fear of hell or promise of heaven. If it's a good action then it's a good action, if it's avoiding a bad action then it's avoiding a bad action. Ultimately I don't care about the motivation.

There are many of course who would disagree with that... they would say the action is not 'truly good' because it was motivated by purely selfish reasons. I don't think that way though because 1) I'm a consequentalist and 2) I think we're all ultimately selfish anyway.