In a message dated 9/6/2006 7:58:49 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Upon what do atheists base their morality? I've never been able to understand this. If selection of the species is determined by survival of the fittest, isn't "might" the ultimate good, biologically speaking? The strong are just doing nature a favor by rubbing out the weak, preferably before they have a chance to reproduce. Following this line of reasoning, would not killing babies be one of the "moral" things a person could do? That way only the babies of the strongest parents would be able to survive, and that would improve the bloodline, isn't that so? I am late to this discussion - Have been in Salzburg all week - but the notion that atheist are by definition immoral or that only with religion can there be a reason for living and a reason to be good is simply not true. We are social animals; like all social animals we succeed (produce more offspring or more correctly more grand children) by being successful in our social interaction. We act morally and fairly because this the best way to achieve success. We engage in complex games of tit for tat (you do well by me; I will do well by you; you cheat and I will not interact with you in the future). In order to do this we have developed exquisite tools for detecting cheaters and liars. We have built in tools for deciding what is fair and what is not. There is a huge amount of research (in particular in game theory) that confirms that morality is inborn. We experience fairness as pleasure, lying as pain. All theoretical issues aside - in a practical real world sense the question is are atheists any more likely to be immoral and evil than religious people? I think not. I am a moral person and yet I do not believe in god. I am not a doctrinaire atheist in the sense of thinking religious people are crazy stupid or evil. I just don't believe in god. I can't see how one can reconcile an all powerful entity that is good and yet would allow such pain and suffering in the world . I know the "god works in mysterious ways' argument but if we are not allowed to blame god for evil because we cannot know his ways how can we credit him with good? _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
