A philosophical discussion:
1. The belief in God is needed to act morally.
2. If the belief in God is needed to act morally, then it's immoral to be an atheist.
3. Therefore, it's immoral to be an atheist.
Analyze this argument.
Sherri
Lack of God does not mean lack of morals.
So the argument is about passing judgement. If you believe in God and believe athiest are immoral because they do not believe in God, then that person is also immoral for passing judgement on the athiest. Because to be moral one should know right from wrong and their conduct should reflect that.
This statement is quite false. But sadly, I have met several people who believe this. I personally, question the morals of those who only do the right thing out of fear of repercussion from a supreme being. And no, I don't think that is true of all believers- not by a long shot. But I do remember my husband telling me of a discussion he had with someone when the guy found out he was an atheist. The guy really didn't get why my husband doesn't rob banks or kill people if he doesn't believe there is a god to answer to. People who think like that scare me.
In many ways it seems to me to chose to do the right thing with no hope of divine reward or to not do bad things despite no fear of divine punishment shows a rather high level of personal morals.
Quoting SuperChicken:Pedophile Priests believe in God, therefore pedophilia is a moral act.
I don't believe in God, yet, I have morals. I know what is right and wrong. I know that when I'm mad at someone, that I shouldn't physically hurt them. It's COMMON SENSE> No religion or GOD gives me that. I was taught how to be respectful of others and react to situations with an open mind and think before I react.
Quoting mandaday:This statement is quite false. But sadly, I have met several people who believe this. I personally, question the morals of those who only do the right thing out of fear of repercussion from a supreme being. And no, I don't think that is true of all believers- not by a long shot. But I do remember my husband telling me of a discussion he had with someone when the guy found out he was an atheist. The guy really didn't get why my husband doesn't rob banks or kill people if he doesn't believe there is a god to answer to. People who think like that scare me.
In many ways it seems to me to chose to do the right thing with no hope of divine reward or to not do bad things despite no fear of divine punishment shows a rather high level of personal morals.
ALSO...isn't one of the most important morals to Love Thy neighbour (in religion)...yet, somehow, anyonme who is homosexual, or not religious, or doesn't fall under the qulaifications of what "God" expects, get ostricized and ridiculed and told how horrible they are for being what they are???
How are morals associated with Religion and the Bible if there are a lot of very negative things associated with them too???
Morality is intentional.
Also, morality has different perceptions and interpretations. I share moral points of view with many people, but not with every person who believes they are moral.
God is irrelevant to morality, so atheism is too.
According to Kant, then, the ultimate principle of morality must be a moral law conceived so abstractly that it is capable of guiding us to the right action in application to every possible set of circumstances. So the only relevant feature of the moral law is its generality, the fact that it has the formal property of universalizability, by virtue of which it can be applied at all times to every moral agent. From this chain of reasoning about our ordinary moral concepts, Kant derived as a preliminary statement of moral obligation the notion that right actions are those that practical reason would will as universal law.
Who would you save?
- PurdueMom
on Apr. 25, 2012 at 11:48 AM