Those Damned Immoral Atheists
Michael Gerson has one of what seems a long list of articles that say that those of us who don’t believe in God are somehow incapable of forming any kind of moral code, and as a result, are sure to lead the whole world into hell if we’re allowed to carry on in our disbelief and in doing so, cause others to stray from the One True Path.
You know its going to be good when he starts with this little piece of absurdity.
British author G.K. Chesterton argued that every act of blasphemy is a kind of tribute to God, because it is based on belief. "If anyone doubts this," he wrote, "let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor."
I'm sure there are some Asatruar who are properly offended by such an implication. If you don't believe, then you can be blasphemous without even trying. It's only blasphemous to those who do believe, or believe in a certain way. For everyone else, its just so many words.
I merely want to pose a question: If the atheists are right, what would be the effect on human morality?
If God were dethroned as the arbiter of moral truth, it would not, of course, mean that everyone joins the Crips or reports to the Playboy mansion. On evidence found in every culture, human beings can be good without God. . . . There is something innate about morality that is distinct from theological conviction. This instinct may result from evolutionary biology, early childhood socialization or the chemistry of the brain, but human nature is somehow constructed for sympathy and cooperative purpose.
But there is a problem. Human nature, in other circumstances, is also clearly constructed for cruel exploitation, uncontrollable rage, icy selfishness and a range of other less desirable traits.
So the dilemma is this: How do we choose between good and bad instincts? Theism, for several millennia, has given one answer: We should cultivate the better angels of our nature because the God we love and respect requires it. While many of us fall tragically short, the ideal remains.
Atheism provides no answer to this dilemma.
For Atheists, there is no dilemma. Just because someone doesn’t have sky spirits telling him what to do, doesn’t mean they can’t tell the difference between right and wrong. He says as much himself when he points out that there is something innate about morality that is distinct from theological conviction.
Some people are very good at the self-centered exploitation of others. Many get away with it their whole lives. By exercising the will to power, they are maximizing one element of their human nature. In a purely material universe, what possible moral basis could exist to condemn them? Atheists can be good people; they just have no objective way to judge the conduct of those who are not.
That’s just patently absurd, and one of the reasons that people like Hitchens, Dawkins, and Harris slam religion is that the people who are so very good at the self-centered exploitation of others have often found that the easiest way to do so is to wrap themselves up in the trappings of religious faith. I don’t entirely agree with their stance against all faiths, but it is impossible to argue that the greatest atrocities committed on Earth almost always use theological justifications to absolve their perpetrators of their crimes.
Without God saying that it was okay to slaughter those who believe differently, those behind the pogroms, terror attacks, Crusades, and Holocaust would have to look at those acts robbed of the moral certitude their Theism grants them.
Maybe Atheism doesn’t offer someone a convenient short-hand for moral and immoral acts, but it also doesn’t allow someone to cloak their immorality in the comforting fiction of “doing God’s work”. When you can’t count on some deity to forgive your excesses, you have to judge the actions themselves.
Granted, if the only thing that’s keeping you from doing all sorts of terrible acts is your faith in a deity that will punish or reward you, then I’m very happy that you have that faith and I won’t do anything to convince you otherwise. I’ll only judge your actions, and of course point out hypocrisy if those actions run contrary to your stated beliefs.
In a world without God, however, this desire for love and purpose is a cruel joke of nature -- imprinted by evolution, but destined for disappointment, just as we are destined for oblivion, on a planet that will be consumed by fire before the sun grows dim and cold.
I grant it is a touch depressing. Given a choice, I’d like to find myself waking up in Valhalla, but I figure the chances of that are highly unlikely. I’d have to find a battle to get killed in while doing something heroic enough to catch the attention of a valkyrie. Quite a bother, really, particularly given things are so peaceful here, which would mean a lot of traveling, and who likes that?
No I'll just have to treat this life like its the only one I'm going to get and not waste it on the hope that the next one will somehow be better.
