Ask an atheist

[ciphergoth]

In a discussion about religion in wildeabandon's journal, meihua writes: "this seems to have turned into me interrogating you. [...] Is there anything you'd like to challenge me on, instead?"

I think it's only fair enough to open up my own beliefs to the challenges of others, since I'm always keen to respond when theists invite me to give my perspective on some aspect of their beliefs as wildeabandon has in a series of recent posts. So, is there anything you'd like me to respond to?

Rules:

• You don't have to read this thread. This post is an invitation, not a challenge; if you don't like to read me talking about this then feel free to skip this.
• Be honest. Please don't advance arguments you don't personally buy, unless you're also an atheist and you want to discuss how best to counter it.
• If you come to change your mind about the validity of an argument, think about how you can generalise the lesson learned so as not to misassess similar arguments in future.
• Don't just match the politeness of what you reply to, but try to exceed it - see Postel's Law. Otherwise it is very easy to end up with a thread where each contributor thinks they are merely matching the snark level of the other, and yet the thread starts with the very slightest suggestion of rudeness and finishes with "please choke on a bucket of cocks".

Comments

Re: atheism and morality

[palmer1984.livejournal.com]

Atheist (only for about a year though). I'm not exactly playing devil's advocate by asking Paul these questions, just trying to figure out where I stand.

I do have an undergraduate's knowledge of philosophy - I did a philosophy degree, so when I said "moral statements have no meaning" I was referring to the positivist position that asserts that since moral statements are not empirical facts of logical truths they can have no meaning.

I quite agree with your second paragraph, though I am not talking about what happens on a political level. I am talking about how to convince an individual who is acting like a selfish bastard to behave differently.

I would question the motives of those who assert that many - or any - members of an 'out-group' such as atheists view self-interest as their moral compass.

There is certainly a sort of Thatcherite Atheism, that I have encountered. A sort of "God doesn't exist, morality isn't real. Selfishness is good!". However, I do agree that even these people realise that they live in a society so that it is to some extent in their interests to treat other people well.