Atheism and morality

[Inigo]

I will simply point out that two beliefs common in Hindu tradition, karma and reincarnation, make up samsara or the wheel of existence. Existence qua existence is taken to be a bad thing, and thus escaping the endless cycle of reincarnation is the goal, also known as moksha. Escaping the wheel takes different forms, but is ultimately seen as the result of acting in accordance with one's dharma which yields good karma and leads to release. Because karmic law imposes karmic burdens on the individual depending on the moral goodness of the act, these serve the same moral function as an ever vigilant, vengeful god who controls your afterlife. So you see, no god is required after all.

Are you at all interested in converting to Hinduism?

No, I do not think morality is well explained by the posit of a Karmic universe. There are several major problems in my view. One of the major problems is that morality instructs/favours whereas a law of nature (or supernature) does not. So this kind of view will be entirely unable to account for morality's instructing nature. Second, there would be no good explanation available of our moral sense and how it has come to track moral properties. Third, such a view does not have the resources to explain moral desert.

This is unsurprising as the Hindu view is not offered as an explanatory hypothesis. Rather, as with all religions, it is just some barmy story someone pulled out of their backside.

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My morality exists. Maybe yours doesn't. Morality could be a concept or it could be some sort of internal instinct. It doesn't matter. What matters is that a God does not have to exist for my morality to exist. Only I do. I am this agent you are speaking about. And so are you. This is pointless.

And once again, just ignore the argument. Don't bother saying which premise you disagree with, just pronounce!

Why are you sure morality exists? Moral sensations and beliefs exist. But some people have a 'sense' that there is a god and loads of people 'believe' there is a god. But that doesn't show a god exists. Why? Because a god is not a sensation or belief. Our concept of a god is of a supernatural agent. So that's what needs to exist before anyone's sensation or belief in a god can be true.

Similarly, most of us have a moral sense and most of us 'believe' some acts to be right and others wrong. But this in itself does not establish the existence of morality. You can recognise this in the religious case, I assume. Why can't you recognise it in this case? MOrality is not a sensation or a belief. It is what the sensation gives us an impression of. it is the thing believed.

You have to look at our concept of morality - analyse the concept - before you can possible know what it would take for morality to exist. And when or if you do that, you'll notice that morality is something instructional and whose instructions have rational authority. The only kind of thing that can have those features is a certain sort of god's instructions. Deal with it.