There is still a group that lots of Americans just don’t like much: atheists. Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry. They can’t join the Boy Scouts. Atheist soldiers are rated potentially deficient when they do not score as sufficiently “spiritual” in military psychological evaluations. Surveys find that most Americans refuse or are reluctant to marry or vote for nontheists; in other words, nonbelievers are one minority still commonly denied in practical terms the right to assume office despite the constitutional ban on religious tests.
More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-do-americans-still-dislike-atheists/2011/02/18/AFqgnwGF_print.html
I wonder why. Hmm. Maybe this has something to do with it:
Many people live without a moral code.
Some do not think that morality exists. Others have chosen a life of sensual beauty instead of morality: aesthetics over ethics. Still others despise morality, seeing it as an impediment to their own domination of others.
I am in a rather odd position. I think that moral imperatives are real and knowable, but as it happens I know almost none of them. So, I don’t know how to live a moral life. I am morally bound but morally blind. I’m driving my life forward at 100mph but I don’t know which direction to turn it.
Let me explain.
I spend most my time on moral theory. Why? Because if I have the wrong theory, then all of my conclusions in applied ethics are unfounded. So I need to make sure I have the right theory before I can answer questions in applied ethics.
I think I may have found the right theory: desire utilitarianism. Unfortunately, this theory does not let me answer moral questions by closing my eyes and asking my “conscience.” Nor does it have any easy answers to any moral questions.
Instead, desire utilitarianism says that moral imperatives can only be known by way of calculations involving billions of (mostly) unknown variables: desires, strengths of desires, relations between desires and states of affairs, and relations between desires and other desires.
Oofta. Can’t I have a moral theory that is a bit more… practical?
Unfortunately, all other moral theories have turned out to be false.
Darn.
So, I’m still researching moral theory, and it may be years or decades before I can turn my eye to questions of applied ethics.
Which means I’ll be living without a moral code for a long time.
Which wouldn’t be a big deal, except that I want to be moral very badly. That’s why I spend so much time studying ethics in the first place!
So I’m stuck. I want to be moral, but I’m not sure what is moral, if I’m living morally right now, or when I’ll get around to figuring out what is moral! I don’t know if I’m a good person.
Now, I don’t mean to overstate this. I’ve got some good guesses about what is moral and not moral, based on the theory of morality that seems most true to me. But they’re really just guesses.
But I can’t just stop living. I have to make decisions every day. Thousands of them. I can’t calculate the morality of each one – or really, hardly any of them. Not yet, anyway. So what do I do?
http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=2654
So what do I do?
ReplyDelete“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” - Acts 16:31
Hi, just came across your blog, and I read some of the more reasonable posts before this one, so I was quite shocked! As a Brit I don't have any of the problems faced by american atheists, but I still find your caricatured attempt to undermine secular attempts at morality to be offensive and misguided in their application.
ReplyDeleteI think it's true that christians fear atheists because they cannot comprehend the possibility that people can behave morally without appealing to god, but that fear is misplaced, particularly at the administrative level. I don't disagree with what you've quoted; moral theory is difficult, especially when, as a consequence of our beliefs, we are forced to forfeit our appeal to divine authority. But the act of trying, of seeking, of creating theories of morality and applying them, is ultimately noble, and it is important that the attempt be acknowledged, fostered and encouraged amongst wider groups, rather than scorned by those who would rather appeal to the ancients in dealing with complex modern ethical questions.
@Coram Deo, your quote cannot possibly provide a skeptical freethinker with solace; after all such deferrence to invisible authority provides no more a guarantee [that the resulting application of moral claims is any more accurate] than the application of secular moral theories. Indeed, a brief overview of church history (and modern ethical disasters perpetrated under the guise of divine authority) and an application of statistical inference would show this to be the case. Believing in the divinity of Jesus by no means solves any honest appraisal of the ethical dilemma. This dilemma applies equally to christians, who are by and large quick to ignore or rationalise their deviations from biblical morality when it pleases them, and amongst the leity largely live as the common atheist; "without a moral code" "a life of sensual beauty instead of morality" "...moral imperatives are real and knowable, but... know almost none of them". We all face these problems, and claims of divine authority are transparent self-projection.
In short, I think such discrimination based on the rejection of the majority religion is not justified by your aspersions; an atheist soldier will die for their country like a christian soldier, an atheist politician will seek the good of their electorate as frequently as one who claims religious affiliation, and someone who seeks morality through secular means deserves the respect of those who appeal to the divine, if only because, like them, we're trying.
b,
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely correct! My quote will only give solace to the elect of the One true God, whom He chose in eternity past to rescue from the futility of their minds.
To all else it is foolishness and nonsense. I guess we know which camp you fall into, cheers!
In Christ,
CD
BLOTONTHELANDSCAPE SAID:
ReplyDelete"Hi, just came across your blog, and I read some of the more reasonable posts before this one, so I was quite shocked! As a Brit I don't have any of the problems faced by american atheists, but I still find your caricatured attempt to undermine secular attempts at morality to be offensive and misguided in their application."
You only have a right to be offended in case there are objective moral norms which I somehow violated.
"I think it's true that christians fear atheists because they cannot comprehend the possibility that people can behave morally without appealing to god..."
You complain about caricaturing atheists, but then you immediately proceed to caricature Christians.
The question at issue is not whether atheists can act morally, but whether they have an objective basis for their moral actions.
"...but that fear is misplaced, particularly at the administrative level. I don't disagree with what you've quoted; moral theory is difficult, especially when, as a consequence of our beliefs, we are forced to forfeit our appeal to divine authority. But the act of trying, of seeking, of creating theories of morality and applying them, is ultimately noble, and it is important that the attempt be acknowledged, fostered and encouraged amongst wider groups, rather than scorned by those who would rather appeal to the ancients in dealing with complex modern ethical questions."
The atheist I quoted doesn't have practical, functional moral code. That's his problem.
What's the value of a moral theory that you can't put into practice? He admits he has to make ethical decisions every day, but as an atheist he has no moral code which will give him concrete guidance.
"@Coram Deo, your quote cannot possibly provide a skeptical freethinker with solace; after all such deferrence to invisible authority provides no more a guarantee [that the resulting application of moral claims is any more accurate] than the application of secular moral theories."
Moral norms are invisible too.
"We all face these problems, and claims of divine authority are transparent self-projection."
An assertion in search of an argument.
"...an atheist soldier will die for their country like a christian soldier."
But why should he? How does atheism justify altruism?
"...an atheist politician will seek the good of their electorate as frequently as one who claims religious affiliation, and someone who seeks morality through secular means deserves the respect of those who appeal to the divine, if only because, like them, we're trying."
Everyone is "trying." The Marquis de Sade was trying.
"Instead, desire utilitarianism says that moral imperatives can only be known by way of calculations involving billions of (mostly) unknown variables: desires, strengths of desires, relations between desires and states of affairs, and relations between desires and other desires."
ReplyDeleteWhere's an omniscient being when you need one?
Wow - quote one atheist - apply it to all and utterly dismiss concerns / complaints about stereotypes. As usual Steve - you show your bile and hatred.
ReplyDeleteDavid said...
ReplyDelete"Wow - quote one atheist - apply it to all and utterly dismiss concerns / complaints about stereotypes. As usual Steve - you show your bile and hatred."
Perhaps you need to see a neurologist about your forgetfulness. I've posted many statements by many atheists who admit to being moral relativists.
James Anderson said:
ReplyDeleteWhere's an omniscient being when you need one?
Great point! Along similar lines: Where's a personal being when you need one? Even if an atheist could develop and know some sort of a moral or ethical calculus, what or who would compel him to obey it? If atheism is true, we live, at bottom, in an impersonal universe. If we live in an impersonal universe, by what authority does the impersonal universe compel us to behave morally or immorally, ethically or unethically? For only a personal being can ground ethical or moral duties and obligations. Or so it seems to me at least.
Common Sense Atheist: "So I’m stuck. I want to be moral, but I’m not sure what is moral, if I’m living morally right now, or when I’ll get around to figuring out what is moral! I don’t know if I’m a good person.Now, I don’t mean to overstate this. I’ve got some good guesses about what is moral and not moral, based on the theory of morality that seems most true to me. But they’re really just guesses.But I can’t just stop living. I have to make decisions every day. Thousands of them. I can’t calculate the morality of each one – or really, hardly any of them. Not yet, anyway. So what do I do?"
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Become a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ, 2nd Person of the Mighty Triune God.