An atheist's view of life's progress

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Saw this link on Secularity.com:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... t/Features

Well, I am glad that Sudhir Jain is a nice atheist, subcribing to all of the religious virtues and ideals while denying the author of them.

I think the point is that you don't need an imaginary friend to be nice. Likewise, just because you have an imaginary friend doesn't automatically make you nice.

Right. Niceness hinges on one key element: Caffiene. Yup.



.... Sorry...

If all I had to go on was "social norms" I wouldn't even bother to play the game.

I have a question for you.

What is the difference between 'ethical egotism' and being a middle class do-gooder?

I know every middle class do-gooder I've met wildly overrates their own goodness and niceness. But that's what's so appealing about it I spose, there is no external authority on whether one is good or nice, it's only one's own opinion that matters.

I think atheists also underestimate how much time and brain power they have to use making moral judgements over almost every little thing in their lives. I get tired just thinking about it. There's also a vague fear that there might be an afterlife or a judgement behind the secular do-gooder's actions: like they hope they've got it all covered just in case there might be a god, they hope they've earned enuf points in a secular way to get them into 'heaven. They're wrong.

I think there's a big difference in doing good out of fear and doing good out of genuine concern for others. But the very fact that we're talking about good brings us to the real question, Where (or from whom) do we get our values of good and evil?