(June 30, 2013 at 10:35 pm)Inigo Wrote: The problem, however, is that morality itself is not these sensations and beliefs. For morality to really exist there would have to be some acts that we really do have reason not to do whatever our ends. And there are not. That's why I think morality does not really exist if atheism is true, it merely 'appears' to exist.
Where this line of reasoning loses me is that I don't understand how a deity somehow provides a better explanation for morality. Deity=morals can hardly be true since morality has varied so substantially throughout cultures. Some things that we consider basic morals (say pedophilia) has been perfectly acceptable in some societies (to pick a not random example, Muhammad in early Islam) It seems the morals vary too much to come from a deity. Even if morals were universal I don't see how that means they came from the supernatural. To say that you lack an understanding of where your morals come from so they must come from God (or in your case, it's possible they come from God) seems to be just a variation on the God of the gaps arguments.
There are many explanations I'd consider more credible than the supernatural to explain morality.