Ethics, Morals and Atheism

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I haven't actually read very much Popper, I've just absorbed much of what he said on falsification through cultural osmosis and reading secondary sources. That quote was part of a fairly short extract I read. I used it in an essay, so had it to hand.

I appreciate the distinction you made. I just often find that people (disingenuously or ignorantly or otherwise) describe anything unscientific as "meaningless" in order to imply that it somehow lacks worth or value. It was presumptuous of me to presume (well, evidently) that there was a possibility that you were doing that, and I apologise if I did so errantly.

Hi all,

I am of no religious abode, I think that religion is a tag along with all other forms concerning it, to be religious or not to be religious.

I respect religion as a belief and all of humanity is entitled to believe what they feel fits the jigsaw within their lives, it's like a piece that is missing for some and a way of life for others.

It's not religion that creates animosity in the world it's people, religion is only a contributing factor to the symptoms of life’s complexity.

I am none religious yet! I still feel that there is more to life than just normality this doesn't make me religious just because I believe in something others don't.

Science could be seen as an religion that isn't esoteric.

In my oppinion, some people are simply to dumb, to think so much further that they can see their own advantage of living in a society without killing or raping. To control these people too, the invention of "the big bad man sitting in heaven and punishing you for all eternity if you do this and that..." were invented. It is not meant as an offend against religious people, so I believe that religions and gods were created in a good meaning, to control people, that were simply unable or to dumb to understand that they are part of a community, and that the more advantages the community have, the more advantages they have themselves as part of this community. After chief ugha tried several times to teach young barbarian ghach, why the hell he shouldnt steal from his neighbors, why the hell he shouldnt rape his neighbors daughters, and he shouldnt kill his neighbor out of fun, he simply gave up on believing that young barbarian ugha was able to understand something thats needs moer then two sentences of explanation and simply told him that the mighty chief barbarian in heaven will be punishing him with his mighty holy club for all eternity, if he doesnt change his behavement.

So you can blame religions for many things, but if you look at ancient texts and see, what things needed to be forbidden by a god so people accepted that rules, you can see that religions not only brought misadvantages, but many social advantages for us to.

No. The ability to feel empathy or not is not a decision, nor is empathy absolutely necessary in order to act morally (although without it, the motivation rarely exists). All I'm claiming is internal consistency - that the empathy or lack thereof of a person does not change the moral nature of his action.

You're right, however. Calling morality objective, in the sense of an absolute fact, was hasty. Rather, morality describes behaviours that are objectively necessary, assuming the stated (and admittedly subjective) goal of acting morally. I cannot claim it is necessary to choose to do good, just that certain behaviours are necessary if you choose to do good.

In a similar sense, it is not objectively true that humans must eat, but it is objectively necessary to eat if your stated (and subjective) goal is staying alive.

In the cases of murder, rape, etc. I am claiming that the portion of the population who are interested in acting morally (generally, those with empathy) have correctly identified these actions as morally wrong.


True. "Ought" is conditional on a stated goal or preference. "Is" can, however, describe a propensity towards or away from that preference.

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It's really impressive how much progress has been made by WP members toward logic, reason and science, and away from myth, fallacy, and superstition in the last 5 years!

Keep up the good work!

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