Dawkins believes in altruism and would use that to judge whether something is "defective" or not. Dawkins gives some good reasons as to how and why morality would evolve in his book "The Selfish Gene". You should read it. Of course you probably won;t agree with them but thats for you to decide.
Altruism is just another word for morality. I don't doubt that atheists can believe in morality. I simply don't think they can make objective sense of it. If morality "evolved" then it's not an "ought", it is just an "is". But the essence of morality is choice. Evolution, and materialism, cannot explain choice. Therefore they cannot even begin to explain morality. If you didn't watch the previous entries in this series, please do.
@Kanbei85 How can we accurately describe morality if diferent societies and religions throughout history have had different ideas of what is morally acceptable behavior and what is not? For instance, many christians believe that it is immoral for someone to be gay but to a gay person there is nothing "morally" wrong with their lifestyle because it's not something they can control. I don't think that your argument properly addresses the fact that morality is subjective to the culture/ religion.
Morality is not subjective. The differences in morality between cultures are due to differences in belief about facts- not differences in the core of what is right or wrong. C. S. Lewis pointed this out in his essay, The Abolition of Man. You should read it sometime.
@Kanbei85 By core values do you mean something like "knowing that something is right and something else is wrong"? Or do you mean in a more literal core value like "murder is immoral"?
I mean a literal core value. The differences in morality between cultures are actually pretty superficial. Again, consult C. S. Lewis. He attempts to isolate some of the core values, which he refers to as, "the Tao".
Dawkins believes in altruism and would use that to judge whether something is "defective" or not. Dawkins gives some good reasons as to how and why morality would evolve in his book "The Selfish Gene". You should read it. Of course you probably won;t agree with them but thats for you to decide.
The0Burger0King 3 months ago in playlist We Know the Supernatural is Real
@The0Burger0King
Altruism is just another word for morality. I don't doubt that atheists can believe in morality. I simply don't think they can make objective sense of it. If morality "evolved" then it's not an "ought", it is just an "is". But the essence of morality is choice. Evolution, and materialism, cannot explain choice. Therefore they cannot even begin to explain morality. If you didn't watch the previous entries in this series, please do.
Kanbei85 3 months ago
@Kanbei85 How can we accurately describe morality if diferent societies and religions throughout history have had different ideas of what is morally acceptable behavior and what is not? For instance, many christians believe that it is immoral for someone to be gay but to a gay person there is nothing "morally" wrong with their lifestyle because it's not something they can control. I don't think that your argument properly addresses the fact that morality is subjective to the culture/ religion.
The0Burger0King 3 months ago
@The0Burger0King
Morality is not subjective. The differences in morality between cultures are due to differences in belief about facts- not differences in the core of what is right or wrong. C. S. Lewis pointed this out in his essay, The Abolition of Man. You should read it sometime.
Kanbei85 3 months ago
@Kanbei85 By core values do you mean something like "knowing that something is right and something else is wrong"? Or do you mean in a more literal core value like "murder is immoral"?
The0Burger0King 3 months ago
@The0Burger0King
I mean a literal core value. The differences in morality between cultures are actually pretty superficial. Again, consult C. S. Lewis. He attempts to isolate some of the core values, which he refers to as, "the Tao".
Kanbei85 3 months ago
interesting.
Matchstick41 4 months ago
The is ought dilemma applies to theists as it does to atheists.
sweatytoothmadman 4 months ago
@sweatytoothmadman
I think that would ultimately come down to how you define "ought".
Kanbei85 4 months ago