Making moral decisions is not always easy. Sometimes we get pulled in different directions; maybe our heart says one thing and our head another. But some things are crystal clear – some things are just plain wrong. The murder of an innocent person is wrong. The abuse of a child is wrong. Rape – regardless of the gender or the circumstance – is wrong. But where does this moral conviction come from? Why is it that we think that morality is important? Why is it we spend so much time worrying about whether something is right or wrong?
Atheism does not provide very satisfying answers to these questions. Some atheists say that human morality is just a happy coincidence – we could have developed differently, but luckily we happen to think that murder and rape are wrong. But this isn’t very encouraging, if our sense of right and wrong is just chance. Nor does it seem to reflect our experience of moral decisions – morality isn’t just a trick of our brains, some things are obviously bad.
Some atheists say that human morality developed as a survival strategy – a society without lots of murders will work better than a society with lots of murders so evolution should select for the society without lots of murders. Whilst that’s true, it is also true that it is even better for the survival of my genes for me to feign morality when it suits me and to behave immorally when it suits me better. We would expect evolution to equip us with a survival instinct but we would not expect evolution to equip us with values of self-sacrifice, compassion and altruism. And yet, we just do think that self-sacrifice is morally good and that murder, regardless of the selfish motives, is bad.
Some atheists say that morality is a consequence of our rational faculties, that when evolved rational minds we realised that murder or rape was wrong. But morality is something different from reason. Reason is great working out how to get what you want but it cannot tell you what it is you desire. If I want to be successful and powerful then it is perfectly rational for me to commit immoral acts to further my career (if I can get away with them). Reason can help us make our moral decisions but only once we have some moral values to work with.
In contrast theism has a very straightforward explanation for why we think morality is important – God has given us this moral capacity for our benefit. God is good and God wants humans to be able to form relationships with him, so has given them this moral capacity. Our morality capacity is part of what makes us personal and relational beings.
This is not to say that atheists can’t do good things (they can). All human beings have this moral capacity and can choose to act upon it or not. The question is where does that moral capacity come from? Why do we think that morality matters? If morality is real, if some things are just plain wrong, then we cannot explain the universe in purely physical terms. Our tendency to think in moral terms indicates that there is moral being behind the universe – and that is God.
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Preceding articles:
Why think there’s a God? (1): Something from Nothing
Why think there is a God? (2) Goldilocks Effect
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Find also to read:
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- Judeo-Christian values and liberty
- Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
- Do we have to be an anarchist to react
- A risk taking society
- If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority
- Satan the evil within
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Also of interest:
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- A Friendly Discussion (Morals, Ethics, and Theism)
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- The ethics of admitting you messed up.
- Teaching Ethics to Greedy Bastards
- About My Humanist’s Perspective
- Are We Climbing the Same Mountain? Secular-Religious Ethical Disagreement and the Peter Singer & Charles Camosy Discussion
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- Louis P. Pojman – Ethical Relativism
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- Ten commandments to lose the first 4?
- The Ten Commandments: Are they still relevant? – Part 4
- He who does the commandments and teaches them shall be called great
- To what extent should government enforce the moral law of God? The example of divorce.
- The Ten Commandments and non-believers
- The Ten Commandments and Christian Living
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- Fully Human: Why Think Part I: The Rich Ruler and Jesus
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- The Gift of Connection
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- Chapter 3 of The Journey – My Invisible Scars
- Rust: A Beginners Guide (Part 2)
- Unpredictable Life.
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- It doesn’t really matter What I Do…..
- Humble Your Life, Before Life “Face-Plants” You
- Leaving the Nest
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- Article: States Where Rape is Most Common
- What Is Rape Culture? Why You Should Care.
- The Rape Epidemic in Alaska
- Zimbabwean Pastor imprisoned for half A century, for raping 4 members of his congregation
- Ignorance Means Acceptance: A Stance on Rape Culture
- Shut Up, Rape: Gender Politics in “Super”
- Functional repression
- Farrah Abraham Claims “Dark Times” During Her Time in the Porn Industry
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- Chapter 1, part ii
- Thursday, February 6th, 2014
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- Is it rape if you let it happen?
- Men of a Nightmare
- Why I Rise for Justice
- Send to me Thy Trials so that I may Heal
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if the law emanated from Someone outside the created order, and indeed, were a reflection of that One, two points become clear. That the Law came from a Supreme and immutable Law-giver and that as such the Law very much is and must be immutable.These are points that must be reflected upon both by the atheist, the agnostic and one who places trust in a Higher Power. If I am not responsible to a Higher Power and this Moral Law stuff is all made up, then murder and torture are indeed no different from acts of kindness and altruism for there is no Immutable Standard. If the Moral Law (however difficult to define) exists, than we humans are held to that standard and are responsible for upholding it.
Thanks for the post – love the topic of morals!
I’m an atheist, and one of the reasons why that is the case is that Christians claim moral high ground while discussing murder & rape.
I find a huge conflict here. I’ll just pick out 3 examples
1. Elisha gets called a bald-head, so he curses kids and 42 children get mauled by she bears! The moral?
2. The flood. Why do all babies, infants & animals need to be murdered by god? Is this moral?
3. In Numbers, a man is stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. Again, is this moral?
In addition, the bible advocates slavery (and no – it wasn’t just a form of bonded servitude) and making rape victims marry their rapist. These have NEVER been moral actions, yet they are within your bible and condoned by your god.
Kind regards
Scott
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Scott,
You seem to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
Assuming that the examples you give say exactly what you think they are saying (and let’s not argue the point now), that doesn’t imply atheism. That just implies that those bits of the Bible are immoral and should not be treated as the Word of God.
So your response doesn’t really let you off the hook. You still need to think about the moral argument.
Thanks again.
Tom
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I respectfully disagree
Sorry, but I’m not claiming atheism is a moral position – it is simply the rejection of a claim that a god or gods exist, specifically due to lack of evidence.
Let’s discuss the flood. I say that the drowning of babies, infants and children is immoral. Your god claims credit for this action. Do you think this action was moral?
Kind regards
Scott
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Scott,
I wasn’t say atheism was immoral. I was simply pointing out that you are considering things out of order.
Yes, the question of whether the events recorded in the Bible are true and whether they are moral are important questions. But considering those questions comes later on from the question of whether God exists. That’s the point.
Hope that clarifies things.
Tom
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Sorry – not clear
You don’t need to beleive in a god to consider whether actions are immoral
Do you think god drowning babies & infants in a flood is moral?
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