Review 2 (General)

by Mark , Monday, October 20, 2008, 17:20 (5674 days ago) @ dhw

Thanks, dhw, for the review, which is a useful exercise, especially during a lull in the debate. However, I must disagree with your precis of my contribution:
"Mark... has discussed the nature of God (an endlessly fascinating subject for those of us who are appalled by "The Horrors of Evolution") and questioned whether atheists and agnostics can have any moral principles, since he believes they do not recognize any authority outside themselves." - I have not argued that atheists and agnostics cannot have moral principles, nor have I said that they do not recognise any authority outside themselves. Clearly most do. What I have claimed is that they can find no ultimate basis for morals outside of themselves. An atheist may choose to submit to an authority. An atheist may choose to follow the prevailing moral code of society. An atheist may choose to live by the rule "do not murder". But none of those decisions can be based on an obligation from without. The atheist cannot hold that any of his moral principles are objectively true. - So, the "horrors of evolution" may confirm atheism, because of the tension of belief in God and the observation of suffering in creation. But the rejection of God just leaves a different tension, for the revulsion at the suffering then loses any foundation.