Me Versus God, Part IV: Morality Debunked

The idea of "moral law" coming from God is nonsense. The highest ideal in moral behavior is simply the pursuit of one's own self-interest. The only reason we tend to be nice and cooperative with each other is because such activities can intrinsically serve a self-interested end. Hence, there is no need for God to dictate morality to us because virtue is indeed its own reward.

Morality is nothing more than an emergent property of decision-making that involves social interactions. There is thus no such thing as moral absolutism beyond whatever choices tend to maximize the long-term self-interest of the decision maker.

This video may feel a little more dry than my others, but I feel that many other YouTube videos on the topic fail to emphasize the importance of self-interest in the development of moral behavior.

For more information on this topic, see the following videos:

Potholer54debunks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94f2h-5TvbM&feature=channel_page

Thunderfoot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyd6om8IC4M&feature=channel_page

Category:

Education

Tags:

• me versus god
• morality debunked
• moral behavior

[LordHines420]

soo... "morality" and everything associated with it is more or less an evolved trait? good enough for me.

[AntiCitizenX]

@LordHines420

Yep. Pretty much. 

[yhwhizlife1]

ok so lemme ask u a question u say if u killed someone then u might suffer from retaliation or from the law finding you .... but what if u killed her where no one saw and on a world where there were no police or any form of government .... and u didnt face the chances of getting retaliated on ... then would it still be wrong ... what about rape or any other gross immoral act .. what if u didnt face any threat of retaliation .. then would it still be wrong by your own understanding it wouldnt

[AntiCitizenX]

@yhwhizlife1

"but what if u killed her where no one saw"

Why should I even bother going out of my way to kill people when I can just sit at home and watch TV? Why does subjective morality all of a sudden mean we have to go out of our way just to hurt random people?

I must also ask if you actually watched this whole video? I address this exact point, Life! Read the sub-titles at 5:45. Cooperation and specialization are behaviors that serve self-interest.

[AntiCitizenX]

@yhwhizlife1

"but what if u killed her where no one saw and on a world where there were no police or any form of government "

You should seriously ask yourself this same thing. By your own admission, YOU EAT MEAT. That makes you a willing participant in the willful slaughter of helpless creatures for your own tasty amusement. Are you seriously okay with this?

[cbl2988]

Holy crap! You just validated Ayn Rand's Objectivist ethics! One of the best explanations outside of Ayn Rand that I have ever seen from a more scientific perspective! Well done!

[WerewolfOfTheWater]

It may not be a comforting truth but it's still a truth regardless, that the only reason we have morals is because we wanted to give ourselves a system of morals. You might ask "well then what stops you from raping and killing," the truth is that nothing stops you aside from your own choice not to. If you wanted to rape or kill you would and religion wouldn't stop you. But if you do it, even if there was no government, you'd still be reviled and hated as a murderer. There are consequences.

[Acrimonator]

@yhwhizlife1 Because we survived by developing social behaviour to increase survival chances by making life in groups more efficient, and "being mean and rude as much as you possibly can" will make you dangerous for the group that will reject you in the better case, kill you in the worst.

Now tell me, do you really want to be as mean and rude as you possibly can ? Really ? Is there only religion to restrain you from killing and raping ?

[kittyloaf]

@yhwhizlife1 I like the act utilitarian view, pick the action that brings pleasure the most. Killing for no reason when no one is looking will still reduce the pleasure of the one we killed, meanwhile will probably make us feel guilty. So that action should be rejected. Even if we get pleasure from killing, its outweighed by the negative pleasure of the guy we killed

[ursowrng]

So what do we do with the evidence that our free will is non-existent? Surely we can have morality without it, so long as we value the well being of conscious creatures.

[tjtheplay]

@yhwhizlife1 Manners is what we invented ourselves.

We developed morals because I can imagine it's key for human survival.

I think that what you said was wrong. Just because I said that morality was made up by humans doesn't mean that I have my own morals.

[yhwhizlife1]

@tjtheplay so why am objectively wrong for thinking being mean and rude as much as i possibly can is okay . since all morals are subjective and subjective feelings vary from person to person

[tjtheplay]

@yhwhizlife1 Yes. 

However, let me restate what I said earlier. Morality was made up by humans and OTHER SPECIES. Because I'm sure that other animals aside from us have moralities. It's just that ours are so much more complex

[yhwhizlife1]

@tjtheplay ok . well if u believe it was made up by humans then im assuming that u believe all morals are subjective ?