RE: In UK atheists considred more moral than theists.
August 21, 2018 at 5:44 pm
(This post was last modified: August 21, 2018 at 5:54 pm by Simon Moon.)
(August 21, 2018 at 5:01 pm)Huggy74 Wrote:
What is an athiest's moral authority? What puts them on the same moral page?
This is not rocket science.
My moral authority are the objective facts about the universe we all inhabit.
We all live in the same physical universe, subject to the same physical laws. We all have, more or less, the same bodies and brains.
Because of the above objective facts, I can easily extrapolate, that the same types of things that I want for my well being, and ability to flourish, the vast majority of other people want, also.
Life is preferable to death, health is preferable to disease, confort is preferable to pain, freedom is preferable to slavery, keeping my personal belongings is preferable to having the stolen, etc, etc.
From there, it comes down making decisions, as a moral agent, that will either, not hinder other people's well being, or improve their well being. For every moral decision we make, there are a finite number of choices that will either, not hinder other people's well being, or improve their well being.
For me, it is very easy to find out if slavery is moral or immoral. Ask the slaves how they feel about it. It is easy for me to find out if theft is moral or immoral. Ask the people who have been robbed. Etc, etc...
This is not subjective morality, because it is grounded in the objective physical laws of the universe, that effect the vast majority of us pretty much the same.
And here's the thing. You probably do the same thing. Except you credit your god.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
