Atheism and morality

[DeistPaladin]

You are clearly as charming as your photo. here's the argument, not that I think you are very interested in addressing it, preferring as you do to merely assert.


1.Morality instructs/favours/commands
2.Only an agent can instruct/favour/command
3.Morality is an agent

That’s the first step. Obviously this leaves open that morality might be us, our communities, or whatever.

Next step.
1.Morality’s instructions confer reasons to comply whatever of the interests of those to whom they apply. (So, if morality truly does instruct you not to kill you thereby have reason not to kill even if you really, really want to.)
2.Only the commands/instructions/favourings of a supernatural agent who controls our fate in an afterlife would confer reasons to all to whom they are applied.
3.Therefore morality’s instructions are the commands/instructions/favourings of a supernatural agent of the kind described in 2.

I'm almost getting vertigo how you are all over the field here, making sweeping assumptions and attaching them to non-sequitur conclusions. It's hard for me to even figure out where to begin.

Hunger is also a drive that favors, commands and instructs us. Is there a god of hunger also?

The drive to breathe favors, commands and instructs us. Is there a god of breathing?

On and on we could go. A sex god? A love god? We could "prove" the existence of an entire pantheon here at the rate we're going.

Or perhaps we could just conclude that these are drives that have suited our survival and prosperity as a species. Evolution doesn't just favor the killing machines, you know. This is why humans and not lions are the dominant species of this planet. Pit an unarmed human against a lion and we can guess the outcome. However, we are community beings that depend on one another for survival. Morality is a strength. A sense of fairness in dealing with others is a strength. The ability to work with others and form laws is a strength. The ability to peacefully resolve differences is a strength. The ability for a species to act for the good of the whole is strength.

You are, of course, free to believe a god imprinted this drive in us just as a divine agent may have influenced our evolution to form these superior brains (and opposable thumbs). However, why can we not then jettison religion? If an atheist follows his conscience and this conscience is a directive from God, is this atheist not doing God's work? Even accepting your assumption, you've provided no compelling reason the atheist must believe in a god, much less offered any indication as to which religion is correct, if any.

And where do you get the afterlife part? Perhaps this deity has a scheme of reincarnation in mind? Or perhaps this deity offers us only one shot at the brass ring and our continued existence after death isn't important to him/her/it? Maybe this deity just wants us to work together productively and peacefully so as to build a better civilization but we, individually are not important enough to preserve in the hereafter?

It might be that there is no god but still an afterlife, if there is some natural explanation for consciousness and this mechanic survives the death of the brain (some "energy" or some such). It might also be that there is a god but no afterlife. The ancient Hebrews who wrote the OT seemed to think so, at least in parts of the OT.

The two issues, is there a god and is there an afterlife, are two separate issues.