Nihilism and atheism (Endings)

by Matt S. , Friday, June 05, 2009, 17:22 (5648 days ago) @ dhw

dhw, I agree with you here. - For one, atheism is really a position on the belief of god and isn't a religion by any real definition of the word. Cary is giving atheism a definition that doesn't exist. The most neutral definition I've seen for religion was "Man's search for meaning." The definition of Atheism doesn't fit here. Atheism is a one-word description that god does not exist. Theism is exactly the opposite, a one-word description that god(s) exist. They are adjectives, not nouns. (No, I'm not being semantic either.) Atheism's only possible tie to morality would be that it doesn't allow for a theistic basis for universal morality. - There are intrinsic philosophical problems with claims like Cary's... (I'm being generous in not calling them gaping holes.) There are a subset of people that worship gods most would consider as "evil." I have always balked at the notion that 'religions make you moral.' Bull. Ten years ago I did a research paper for school about religion in prison populations. 85% professed some form of Christianity--just as much as the regular U.S. population. However when you looked at atheists (at the time, only 2% of the U.S. population) 0.5% of inmates called themselves atheists. At the time I didn't care so much about looking at the whole population of freethinkers (agnostics/atheists) which I think I just read consists of 15% of the U.S. population. In Japan, the number is 65% atheist/agnostic, and they manage to have a lower crime rate than the U.S. - And what is "moral" anyway... There is a great deal of argument that morals at large are arbitrary. I spent a long time dealing with the problem of moral relativism. - As far as ethics are concerned, I've concocted a proposal for a universal basis in ethics that... no one as of yet has told me has already been thought of or has refuted. Maybe one of you fine people can do one of those here... - Essentially, when observing our species, you almost never see us alone. No one gets to be a hermit in the mountains. This is because in the absence of other people, morals of any kind mean absolutely nothing. If there was only one human being, what purpose does "don't murder" serve? Therefore, morals only have any meaning in the presence of other people. But since we are never in a situation where we're not in the presence of other people, it follows that we cannot escape morality, even if some morals are arbitrary. - Yeah... this is someone that tends to be nihilistic actually stating that there is a universal basis for morality.