Hate Mail Replies - Part I

theangryatheist's picture

From my blog The Angry Atheist at http://angryatheist.blogspot.com (see blog for full text with hyperlinks):

Now to respond to some of the comments from my angry religious readers...These are all in reply to my post THANK YOU, National Geographic!, in praise of the issue with the cover asking "Was Darwin Wrong?" and the first page answering "NO!"

Anonymous said, "All you have to do to understand what life without God would be like is to look at the animal world, when a male cat comes upon a litter of kittens that are not his he kills them...We only strive for civility because of our knowledge of God. If there were no God I would just kill you for your food."

If this statement is true, then Anonymous should be institutionalized. No one can use God or the lack of God to justify murder or sociopathic behaviour. The millions of ethical atheists around the world who are leading perfectly functional lives, knowing that there is no God, are proof that we do not need one. And while I'm at it, to the atheists who believe that some people of lower intellect would be forever lost without their misguided faith: don't you think that this view is a bit pompous?

I happen to hold everyone to the same high moral standard that I hold myself to. I refuse to coddle other people as if they are inferior to me. Adults are capable of treating each other with civility, with or without a belief in a god. In response to the statement about male cats killing kittens that are not his own: assuming that a person was raised by humans rather than by wild cats, they have no excuse to do intentional harm to anyone.

That being said, I've always thought it was more commendable to see an atheist do something charitable than it is to see a believer do so. As atheists, we can be honest, caring people, not because we are afraid of divine punishment or we seek some reward in the afterlife. We are good people because we have advanced beyond the toddler stage and we can feel empathy for others. We do not have to do the right thing, but we do it because it is rewarding in itself. I would argue that for this reason, the moral code of the atheist is more admirable than that of the religious person. If you had a young child and he decided to help you clean the dishes without being asked to do so, wouldn't you be more impressed than if the child only did his chores after you threatened some form of punishment, or enticed him with the reward of dessert? More on the origins and reasons for an atheist ethic to come. For now, on to the next comment...

Anonymous said, "Don't forget to mention to the public that evolution is completely homophobic as there is no way that two organisms of the same sex would be attracted to each other because they can't reproduce and would completely fall outside the evolutionary model of survival of species."

Who said that the meaning of life was solely to reproduce via childbirth? And who said that the meaning of sex was solely to reproduce? I certainly didn't. And how can you be so certain that homosexuality falls outside of the evolutionary model of "survival of the species," anyways? Has it occured to anyone that in a time in which overpopulation and diminishing resources are a threat to the survival of every species including our own, the evolutionary biological basis for homosexuality may start to make an awful lot of sense when we look back on it? Evolution needs to be looked at from a broad, "macro" perspective, over many generations. Nature may have reasons which we are not yet aware of for much of what we see in the world today...

That's all the time I have tonight. More hate mail responses to come later...

The Angry Atheist "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." -George Bernard Shaw

theangryatheist's picture

Hmmm, I hope there's no

Hmmm, I hope there's no taboo against posting content from your other blogs here. Anyways, I thought this post was appropriate. I can't seem to get my text links to work, though, and I seem to have lost some of my formatting (it's just not the same without all the italics for emphasis!). Sigh. I don't see a link to edit my post, though...

The Angry Atheist "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." -George Bernard Shaw

mavaddat's picture

Re: atheist morality

I like the argument that an atheist who does good for its own sake is more praiseworthy than a Christian who does it for the sake of avoiding punishment.

However, I think it's important to remember that not all religious people believe that the foundation of morality is desire for reward and fear of punishment. Some religions advocate doing good "for the love of God," which is obviously a euphemism for "for the love of goodness." The very etymology of "good" goes back to the word "God," which simply means, "having the right or desirable quality." (Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 11 Jun. 2007)

That being said, the message anonymous sent you confuses the standard of goodness with the fact of goodness. It is true that without God, there is no absolute judge of what is right and what is wrong. However, whether there is an absolute judge of what is wrong does not change the fact that some actions/motives are wrong (let's be 'moral objectivists' for a second). This is similar to how facts about nature do not depend on there being an absolute judge about which fact-claims are true. Without God, we must all be humble and admit that we could potentially be wrong about any of our judgements.

This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Historically, all kinds of immorality has been justified by those claiming to have metaphysical access to a Divine and infallible standard of right and wrong, which was not to be subjected to human revision or questioning. This kind of certainty has given us horrible, terrible consequences. Humans are fallible beings, and belief in an infallible authority is a logical contradiction for a fallible being. Hence, we would do well to eliminate this idea of certainty in "God's command."

I can think of no better way to eliminate the ethical hubris that follows from "knowing" God's will than by eliminating belief in God altogether.

theangryatheist's picture

Yes, I think that any system

Yes, I think that any system of morals needs to have room to evolve, so to speak...