veloc1ty said:
What reason do you have for emulating the Christian god? Because it is the right thing to do? Seems rather circular, I can't get my head around it.
How can doing something "simply because it is the right thing to do" possibly be a strong foundation for ethics?
So essentially you are asking me why I would rather do good rather than wrong? As a christian it would be because I am commanded to. It would also be because the feeling of guilt from doing wrong is hard for me to deal with. This answer seems pretty obvious though so I assume that you must be getting at something else here.
I would not claim this reasoning here to be foundation for ethics. Rather this is a response to ethics. The foundation of ethics is based in what I believe to be Gods character as I said before. Ie it is him that defines what is good and evil simply on the bases of who he is.
veloc1ty said:
You are assuming a god is necessary for morality (see bottom of post).
Close, but not quite. I am claiming that God is necessary for objective morality of any significance to exist. I would accept that morality can exist without a God, but none that bears any real meaning since there is essential no right or wrong.
I would like to quote Richard Taylor, an eminent ethicist here. He sums up my thoughts on the issue pretty succinctly:
Richard Taylor said:
The modern age, more or less repudiating the idea of a divine lawgiver, has nevertheless tried to retain the ideas of moral right and wrong, not noticing that, in casting God aside, they have also abolished the conditions of meaningfulness for moral right and wrong as well. Thus, even educated persons sometimes declare that such things are war, or abortion, or the violation of certain human rights, are ‘morally wrong,’ and they imagine that they have said something true and significant. Educated people do not need to be told, however, that questions such as these have never been answered outside of religion.1
He concludes:
Richard Taylor said:
Contemporary writers in ethics, who blithely discourse upon moral right and wrong and moral obligation without any reference to religion, are really just weaving intellectual webs from thin air; which amounts to saying that they discourse without meaning.2
1Richard Taylor, Ethics, Faith, and Reason (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985), pp. 2-3.
2 Ibid., p. 7.
veloc1ty said:
I'll go out on a limb here and say: I agree that there are no black and white moral truths. Each situation must take everything into consideration: e.g. a moral truth might be "killing is utterly unacceptable" but some would argue that if it was to save 1000 innocents it would be acceptable to kill 1 person.
This is where I would disagree with you. Lets say that "killing is utterly unacceptable" (pretty broad description, but we will leave it at that for now). Using your example I would argue that it is wrong for that one man to kill 1000 people just as it is wrong for 1 person to kill that man. Now the terminology is getting quite confusing here because you are using terms such as "acceptable" rather than right or wrong. "Acceptable" is a personally subjective term rather than the objective morality that we are discussing.
veloc1ty said:
Also, even with a god, we're still decaying organic matter. What's wrong with that?
I think you probably understand my point with the explanations above, but I will reiterate. While, yes, we are still decaying matter currently, without God, there is no purpose and no reason to think that what happens with that matter is anything other than coincidence. Without God there is no law-giver, or something that dictates what morally right and wrong is. Any forms of morality that are created without a God are simply that - created. Right or wrong created by the agent to which right and wrong applies holds no significant value whatsoever.
So this raises a bigger problem. Namely that which Kfunk brought up underneath your post -
Euthyphro's Dilemma
Basically this dilemma poses this morality question directly at God. ie, did God create right and wrong (hence it having no meaning since it was created) or did he abide to what was already established as right or wrong - which raises the question, where did this objective morality arise from?
My opinion is that there is a third option, that being that God himself is the very definition of what right and wrong is. He did not create it since it is a by-product of his character and essentially who he is. This concept took my mind quite a while to wrap itself around. In the context of an omnipotent and omnipresent God such as that of christian belief it makes perfect sense to me since that God is the absolute definition and reason for everything. There is nothing for him to abide to and there is nothing for him to create to abide to - he simply is.
Think about it for a while, I know it messed with me for a long time.
veloc1ty said:
I certainly do believe evolution has a large impact on our "gut feelings" (for lack of a better phrase). I recall a study was taken of a group of atheists and a group of theists and both were asked what they would do in certain basic situations (along the lines of murder and sacrifice) and the answers were always the same. This indicates we have a common basic groundwork, but I'll be honest and say this is not enough.
Objective morality would expect that both atheists and theists have the same underlying moral beliefs.
veloc1ty said:
These actions (rape, adultery) that have a possible positive benefit must be taken into consideration with other things. I cannot possibly answer with such little information.
Objective morality would assert that these seemingly universal moral convictions are due to more than simply evolutionary factors - hence why they still persist despite have negative effects on the survival of humans.
veloc1ty said:
To try and thin down all these quotes, I think we've boiled down to these questions, which I will elaborate on:
Is an acceptable system of ethics possible without a god? Why/why not?
Yes, because a god is not necessary for ethics in the first place.
How do you arrive at this system of ethics?
Each person's morality is influenced by a huge range of personal beliefs and experiences. Personally, it comes down to utilitarianism (moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome) and am influenced by philosophies such as secular humanism. Many people will subscribe to a similar position, whether or not they conciously apply a label to it.
1. Is an acceptable system of ethics possible without a god? Why/why not?
This very much depends on what you regard as acceptable. I would argue that yes, a system of ethics is certainly possible without God. However such as system would have no real significant meaning or purpose other than keeping it's species alive.
2. How do you arrive at this system of ethics?
If we are looking at only a naturalistic explanation (that without a God) then this system would be arrived at based on evolutionary factors of the species. Things regarded as "good" would be things that promote survivability. Things regarded as "bad" would those that hinder the survivability of the population.
With a God I would think that each person would have Gods system of ethics laid or programmed into their conscience. At least originally. This area gets tricky because we can subdue our conscience by repeatedly doing wrong to the point that we learn how to effectively ignore our conscience. I know that I can attest to this anyway.
veloc1ty said:
And also for you;
How does believing in a god allow you to judge individual situations correctly?
Okay, before I start on this I would like to firstly state that I don't mind if you simply disregard what I am saying here, because I realize that most of these things may seem foreign or absurd.
How do I judge situations correctly in regard to objective morality?
Well I firstly examine my conscience for what my "gut" feeling or conviction is on the issue. Often times this will simply be enough in order to tell if what I am doing is right or wrong - as I imagine it is for the majority of situations for you to.
Although this rarely proves ineffective, If I am still concerned about the issue then I would consult someone which I feel has had excellent moral judgment in the past, pray about it and read the bible on any similar issues - particularly that of how Jesus would have decided when placed in the same situation.
Now although this next point may seem ridiculous I am sure that it is worth mentioning. Christians believe that when they accept Christ they also receive what is called the
"Holy Spirit" (also known as the holy ghost). The Holy spirit is said to help guide Christians in their faith just as Christ would have done if he was still around. The Holy spirit also has other purpose (which you can read about through the link if you wish) but my point is that this is essentially another way to know if what I am doing is right or wrong.
veloc1ty said:
Btw, thanks for replying before and I hope you can make sense of the rather piece-meal post above.
No problem at all. Although it does always take a while for me to reply to a post, I do enjoy doing it because it enables me to actually think out what I believe and why. For that my thanks goes to you