{"id":875,"date":"2003-03-08T16:46:56","date_gmt":"2003-03-09T00:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2003\/03\/08\/reflections-on-atheism-and-amorality\/"},"modified":"2003-03-08T16:46:56","modified_gmt":"2003-03-09T00:46:56","slug":"reflections-on-atheism-and-amorality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2003\/03\/08\/reflections-on-atheism-and-amorality","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Atheism and Amorality"},"content":{"rendered":"

In that class that I guest-lec\u00adtured in<\/a> I field\u00aded some ques\u00adtions from athe\u00adists. I\u2019ve been reflect\u00ading on athe\u00adism since then, and I\u2019d like to offer a refine\u00adment of my thoughts.<\/p>\n

First, a dis\u00adclaimer. It is pos\u00adsi\u00adble that some\u00adone could find this hurt\u00adful or offen\u00adsive. I do not seek to delib\u00ader\u00adate\u00adly offend, but I do seek to be hon\u00adest. It seems to me that athe\u00adism has sev\u00ader\u00adal seri\u00adous prob\u00adlems, and I am about to address one of them: athe\u00adis\u00adm\u2019s intrin\u00adisic divorce from moral\u00adi\u00adty. This is not a per\u00adson\u00adal attack on anyone\u2013in fact, you can be an athe\u00adist and also be quite a moral per\u00adson. But if you are an athe\u00adist you do not have a com\u00adpelling rea\u00adson to be moral (or even to believe that moral\u00adi\u00adty is a mean\u00ading\u00adful con\u00adcept), and that is what I want to address.<\/p>\n

I can sum up what I\u2019ve been think\u00ading in one phrase: athe\u00adism is amoral<\/b>. Amoral\u00adi\u00adty flows direct\u00adly from a rejec\u00adtion of all non\u00adma\u00adte\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal real\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

Allow me to explain: a moral law is an entire\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent sort of thing than a law of physics. You can\u00adnot get a moral \u2018ought\u2019 from a mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal \u2018is.\u2019 <\/p>\n

If all we are is a col\u00adlec\u00adtion of par\u00adti\u00adcles arranged in a com\u00adpli\u00adcat\u00aded fash\u00adion, then there is no com\u00adpelling rea\u00adson to sup\u00adpose that any motion of those par\u00adti\u00adcles is log\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly prefer\u00adable to any oth\u00ader. Say, for instance, a col\u00adlec\u00adtion of par\u00adti\u00adcles dri\u00adving a knife through anoth\u00ader col\u00adlec\u00adtion of par\u00adti\u00adcles ver\u00adsus a col\u00adlec\u00adtion of par\u00adti\u00adcles nurs\u00ading anoth\u00ader, small\u00ader col\u00adlec\u00adtion of par\u00adti\u00adcles.
\n
\nEvery effort that I have ever seen to make the leap from nat\u00adur\u00adal \u2018is\u2019 to moral \u2018ought\u2019 (such as Ayn Rand\u2019s attempt in Objec\u00adtivism<\/a>) fal\u00adters at one point or anoth\u00ader. Usu\u00adal\u00adly, such efforts err in rely\u00ading on moral sen\u00adti\u00adment to cov\u00ader up shod\u00addy log\u00adic (no one wants to argue that abus\u00ading oth\u00aders could be con\u00adsid\u00adered log\u00adi\u00adcal, ratio\u00adnal, and in one\u2019s long-term self-inter\u00adest giv\u00aden the right set of pre\u00adsup\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtions about the uni\u00adverse and the right com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion of cir\u00adcum\u00adstances and so the athe\u00adis\u00adtic moral\u00adist pre\u00advails in argu\u00adment even though their argu\u00adment doesn\u2019t hold water).<\/p>\n

No\u2014if there is noth\u00ading oth\u00ader than mat\u00adter and the forces which oper\u00adate on it then there is no pro\u00advi\u00adsion for moral\u00adi\u00adty, for how can a rock be immoral? And if a rock can\u00adnot be immoral, then how can we? We are the same stuff arranged dif\u00adfer\u00adent\u00adly.<\/p>\n

Hence, athe\u00adism is amoral.<\/p>\n

Note that I said amoral and not immoral.<\/b> While I do believe that there is one sense in which athe\u00adism is immoral (we all ought to believe in and trust God), I do not mean to imply that athe\u00adists are nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly immoral in the way that most peo\u00adple would under\u00adstand that phrase.<\/p>\n

There are many athe\u00adists who strive to live by codes of con\u00adduct that I find admirable (and there are many more who do not). <\/p>\n

In either case, their choice of a moral code is arbi\u00adtrary. <\/b><\/p>\n

They may be able to present plau\u00adsi\u00adble rea\u00adsons for adopt\u00ading it, but there is noth\u00ading that tru\u00adly jus\u00adti\u00adfies a belief in a bind\u00ading, non-arbi\u00adtrary, uni\u00adver\u00adsal moral frame\u00adwork.<\/p>\n

Once moral\u00adi\u00adty is shift\u00aded to the grounds of expe\u00addi\u00adence (which it inevitably must be\u2014in a nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adis\u00adtic world\u00adview the human con\u00addi\u00adtion is the only con\u00adceiv\u00adable ground\u00ading for a moral code apply\u00ading to humans) then it becomes hol\u00adlow. What is good is only good as long as it is expe\u00addi\u00adent, con\u00adve\u00adnient, or grat\u00adi\u00adfy\u00ading to me in either the long or short term.<\/p>\n

I sup\u00adpose I can best express this prob\u00adlem with athe\u00adism by bor\u00adrow\u00ading an illus\u00adtra\u00adtion from Ravi Zacharias<\/a>\u2014athe\u00adists can\u00adnot be hyp\u00adocrites<\/b>. Say what you will about peo\u00adple like Hitler and Stal\u00adin, you can\u00adnot say that they act\u00aded at odds with their philo\u00adsoph\u00adi\u00adcal under\u00adpin\u00adnings.<\/p>\n

Most athe\u00adists find what these brutes did vile, but none of them can right\u00adly say, \u201cthey should not have done these things because they were athe\u00adists.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s the rub. Any pure\u00adly mate\u00adri\u00adal\u00adis\u00adtic view of human\u00adi\u00adty will at best con\u00adstrue an arbi\u00adtrary moral\u00adi\u00adty. <\/p>\n

Why? Because any sense of the laws of moral\u00adi\u00adty as some\u00adhow real and non-arbi\u00adtrary is firm\u00adly embed\u00added in a super\u00adnat\u00adur\u00adal world\u00adview<\/b>. It takes us to anoth\u00ader part of real\u00adi\u00adty than the one the laws of physics oper\u00adates in\u2014the real\u00adi\u00adty of the tran\u00adscen\u00addent.<\/p>\n

It also pre\u00adsup\u00adpos\u00ades that humans (as opposed to rocks) dwell part\u00adly in that realm, or else how could the laws of moral\u00adi\u00adty apply to us?<\/p>\n

And that is one of the rea\u00adsons I am not an athe\u00adist. <\/p>\n

The pri\u00adma\u00adry (and more com\u00adpelling) rea\u00adson is, of course, that God exists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In that class that I guest-lec\u00ad\u00adtured in I field\u00aded some ques\u00adtions from athe\u00adists. I\u2019ve been reflect\u00ading on athe\u00adism since then, and I\u2019d like to offer a refine\u00adment of my thoughts. First, a dis\u00adclaimer. It is pos\u00adsi\u00adble that some\u00adone could find this hurt\u00adful or offen\u00adsive. I do not seek to delib\u00ader\u00adate\u00adly offend, but I do seek \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cReflec\u00adtions on Athe\u00adism and Amoral\u00adi\u00adty\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-answers-to-honest-questions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-e7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}