Reason vs. Faith, Question 8 of 8 - Ayn Rand Institute

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Dr. Onkar Ghate and Dr. Yaron Brook of The Ayn Rand Institute explain why moral concepts do not depend on religion for their validity.

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• ethics
• morality
• God
• religion
• secular
• Yaron
• Brook
• Onkar
• Ghate
• Ayn
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• Institute
• Objectivism
• Objectivist
• philosophy
• funn

[akinobjectivist]

I agree, Dr. Ghate is so focused on the technical and the practical in his explanations. I admire them both.

[funghizid]

these peeps gimme hope :)

[knelson6599]

@laurajdahl Circular. You define order by the observation of our existing reality. No matter what reality looked like, we would call it "ordered" because that is what we know and have.

[areyouazombie]

It's funny. Religion and GOD are two different things. Period. And all these people...who have all the answers...but didn't create themselves. Collossians 2:2-20

[jeffanie1984]

question 8 was the best asked and most poorly answered question of them all...

these guys still have alot of great ideas.

[progressxoverdue]

Awesome clip!

[Sivels]

@laurajdahl Why live for a God when you can live for a government, or live for a group (something other than yourself) it's the same thing!

[MrChirpsky]

"Man's life" is the standard answer (again, I got that in before I heard the stock answer). Objectivists' also assume an intellectual monopoly on human nature making the philosophy self-affirming. That is, of course, where I, and many depart from it. Human nature is a vital (see Chomsky), but potentially very dangerous (see Foucault), notion (providing the ideational basis for a civilization's entire political/economic mechanism of eaters and eaten, riders and carriers).

[lucentenor]

Laura, did you go out and create a "chaos" and watch it for 16 billion years? The argument that because you don't know how, no one can eventually know how, and therefore only a God knows how is silly. Also, I care if we have morals because it is in our interest as rational beings to identify the good and the bad in reference to our own lives. Morality is important regardless of your religion or irreligion. Open up your mind, but judge critically.

[aznmaplemaster]

you morals are for you personally, if you can sleep comfortably after killing your mother then congratulations, you are so twisted you haven't even barely scratched the surface of what life is all about

[narcissusgray]

Because I am a conscious human being and I wish to live to pursue my own values. My survival is dependent upon my ability to think rationally, therefore any action I take which rejects reason or reality is self-detrimental.