Atheism and Ethics

[The Grand Nudger]

 When I ask “why care” though, it is about what makes moral facts differ from other facts, it is more of a hypothetical.

I wanted to highlight this one specifically.  In the context of objectivism..moral facts do not differ from other facts.  They're non-novel.  It is in the relativist and subjectivist cases that moral facts differ from other facts. When they're not about the thing they purport to report, and so that things fact-status is not a fruitful way of determining their truth or why people believe in it.

-for example..if people believe in transactional gods because they have some transactional desire..then the existence of gods does not and is not required to explain their belief. It originates from that desire they have..and whether or not they have said desire determines whether they believe or are compelled to believe in said god. A person like that confronted with the notion that there are no such gods could hardly help but say to themselves "well...thereshould be". You won't have to argue them into compulsion, they're already there. Dispositional, subjective. I think the same is true for moral objctivism. It's one thing to know the difference between right and wrong (if there is one) - it's another to act, and act correctly and consistently, on that information. IDK, if I wanted to talk someone into conforming to any system because I believed they may be persuadable I'd make all the usual appeals.

Do good for goodness sake. No?
Do good for your community's sake. No?
Do good for your own sake. No?
Do good or I'll hit you over the head with a brick.