How can atheists live an ethical life? Or perhaps I should ask "why?" Why not simply live for pleasure? This is a conundrum that has long perplexed me. So many atheists I know live exceptionally ethical lives, and passionately campaign for rights and wrongs. My most recent conversation around this (see here) began because an atheist was proclaiming an absolute ethical stance on the fundamental basis of human rights. But rights are conferred, not taken. Rights that are self-proclaimed only exist within the scope of a personal worldview and they can have no universal authority. Rationally then, in an atheist's worldview there is nothing “wrong” with child prostitution, human trafficking, cheating, corruption, etc. There is only an “I don't like it”. The ultimate ethical authority of an atheist must surely reduce to the essence of “I don't like it”. If that is so, then the only effective authority of self-determined ethics derives from a persons position of power, be it sourced from financial, moral, relational, political, or other attributes. The poor have the collective power of revolution, and the individual has the power of rebellion. The rich have the power of resources to manipulate and control. The politicians have the power of persuasion and broken promises. We all have some measure of power. But an atheist's ethical power is surely only steered by personal preference. “Fate is just a matter of choosing sides” says Katie Herzig. Quite aside what one means by fate, if sides are a simply a relative matter of preference (as an atheist must surely conclude), and if there are no real sides in any absolute sense, then the meaning of existence reduces to the relativistic “whatever I desire”. And if our desires conflict with those of another, well, we can object, but only on the grounds of preference and no more. For if we say there are no sides, no real right and wrong, then there are no standards beyond desire. Unless … perhaps, just maybe, if there is a universal right and wrong, an external frame of reference, then perhaps the commonality of atheist's ethics is possibly an unconscious agreement with a universal reference. For if there is a universal ethic, it must surely pervade our very being down to the core, and we can no more deny it's expression permeating all we think, say and do than we can choose not to breath. Wouldn't that be the ultimate cosmic joke. The creature created with the essence of morality embedded throughout the fabric of their existence, stands defiantly shouting “I choose to define right and wrong”, when all they are doing is confirming that which truly is right and wrong. A God who made such a creation would surely be smiling if only it were not no sad. So by what right can atheists advocate an ethic?
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Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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