Moral without God? 1/12 Nugent v Murray debate (John Murray opening speech)

Michael Nugent, chair of Atheist Ireland, debates John Murray, director of the Iona Institute for Religion and Society, on the motion: That one cannot be truly moral without God.

The debate took place on 30 March 2010 in Maynooth University, and was organized by the Maynooth Christian Union and the Maynooth Literary and Debating Society.

Opening speeches
1/12 - John Murray opening speech
2/12 - Michael Nugent opening speech
3/12 - Student speeches for motion
4/12 - Student speeches against motion

Questions and answers
5/12 - Relative morality in the Bible
6/12 - Can we live without God?
7/12 - Interpreting morality in the Bible
8/12 - Human rights and true morality
9/12 - Can we be moral with God?
10/12 - Science, morality and animals

Closing speeches
11/12 - John Murray summary
12/12 - Michael Nugent summary

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• morality
• god
• bible
• christianity
• atheism
• secularism
• Ireland
• Atheist
• Iona
• Institute
• Michael
• Nugent
• John
• Murray
• Maynooth
• christian
• union

[irishdecky2]

You can wrap up the bullshit and mask it in big fancy words, try to make it sound clever and logical but unfortunately for this guy it's still bullshit. People are not as gullible any more. Free will is a concept invented by those who were asked the moral question, "Why does God let bad things happen?"

[WhattsHisName]

God damn religions.

[wewereneverthere]

Why are atheists watching religious videos? stop wasting your time go smoke, drink, use drugs, gamble, look at pornography, watch sports, go to rock concerts, and have what ever type of sex you like, whats wrong not enough to do? GO HAVE FUN while you still can.

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

Yeah god is really moral, destroying the whole world with a flood, killing everything, ordering the genocide of entire villages, advocating slavery, and rape, gee with morals like that, why the hell would be need man-made laws! Hmmm

Wake up you fools, there is no god, only the one man created in his own image and to do what he wanted it to do, nothing supernatural about that, just sinister.

[decibel333]

@Irishfreethinker The funny thing about his speech is that morals (in the West) HAVE changed/evolved over time ... it is no longer acceptable to beat your wife or children when they get out of line... it is no longer acceptable to cut off a thief's hand .... it is no longer acceptable to burn someone at the stake... there is no such thing as "objective morality"

[kausidya]

@liveguy7 I was saying freewill is a fantasy. Choice isn't genuine either. Our brains are made of physical material that behaves consistently. The reason so many people are confused is because of the way the human brain conceptualizes itself. Our brains only interpret electrical impulses they receive from our sensory organs and construct a little virtual model of reality from that. They even construct a little virtual model of a self-concept.

[CamAtheist]

@liveguy7 That makes perfect sense that we have means of discovering things which can't seem to discover GOD or elves or unicorns or fairies or Zues yet we accept that without evidence they do not exists, except for GOD apparently. We reject the bible's claims of divine autrhoruship because its too much rubbish for who is claimed to be the author....

[liveguy7]

@kausidya Unsure as to the fantasy you refer to. The beauty about this life is that we have the choice to direct our thoughts to whatever we wish while we exist. This grounds free will and fuels the cause and effect you speak about. I think some think that if God exists, we lack individuality or control. If God exists then he must exist outside the time/space realm but of course we cannot comprehend such a plane of existence in our very limited understanding. The motion presented here is silly.

[liveguy7]

@CamAtheist Why did he do such an act? For the crack? Read the passage again and keep it in context. I find it funny that we claim to have moral standards without believing in God and then attempt to pick holes in a book that we do not respect or believe. We only target the bible as a means to mock and make fun of because our understanding does not align with such a book. Have we departed from truth in this Western world? Science can't quantify God so we say yes, there is no God...hmmmmmmm

[liveguy7]

This motion is a silly one, pointless indeed to it's very core. People will always be gullible as we know very little. We reason as best we can while we have this existence yet we cannot know for certain until we indeed cease to exist. If there is a God, would it not be wise to seek more about him? Of course how would we know? If there is no God....lets party and have fun! Whooooohoooooooo

[Irishfreethinker]

What I find disgusting about Murray's contribution is the smugness it is assumed that it is the gods of the Christian Bible which provides Humanity with "morality". What made me an atheist was the Bible. When you y read the bible, especially it's first 5 books, you will be left in no doubt that morality does not come from god. These books is revealed a vengful capricious god bent on Genocide, infanticide, the burning of people and hatred. There is no Morality to be had from such a god.