RE: Atheism and morality
July 5, 2013 at 2:10 am
(This post was last modified: July 5, 2013 at 2:13 am by Inigo.)
(July 5, 2013 at 1:36 am)fr0d0 Wrote: I think 'moral' describes the Xtian God accurately. 'Just' I think also, together with loving. Those form the core attributes.
God couldn't be just if God didn't enforce justice. 'Vengeful' suggests more that just desert to me. I assume this is your meaning too, and I see no reason to ascribe that attribute to God. I see no justification to make that leap from what you've said.
So 'hurt' has to exist for justice (/morality) to be true. /Hurt isn't morally wrong.
The attraction of God is towards morality. Morality is fully realised in God.
@apoplexia
You seem to be consistently missing the point that God -is- the moral agent in what Inigo is saying
Yes, you're right that a degree of vengefulness can be called 'justice' and is a virtue, not a vice. However, the degree of vengefulness that she needs to possess in order for her instructions to possess inescapable rational authority goes beyond, it seems to me, what is called for by the virtue of justice.(which is not to say that there is anything 'unjust' in the harm coming to a person, just that a 'just' person wouldn't have meted it out)
For instance, it seems to me - and here I am simply appealing to my moral sense - that if someone does wrong, then they 'deserve' to come to harm (which I interpret as my sensing that she - morality - wishes this person to come to harm). However, it does not seem to follow that it is automatically right for me to harm that person. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
For instance, take someone like a leading Nazi, Himmler or someone. Such a person plausibly deserves to come to so much harm no virtuous person would deal that harm out.
Or let's say I'm walking down the street and I just punch someone in the face for a laugh. As it happens that person had just done something horrible and deserved to come to harm. So, this person actually got their 'just deserts'. However, I did not act justly. It was wrong of me to punch him in the face.
So it seems to me that deserving a harm, and it being just or right to mete that harm out are different.
This mismatch and the fact that deserving to come to a harm does not automatically make it right to mete the harm out suggests that her degree of vengefulness exceeds that which constitutes justice.