Morality

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A good short article on morals in an atheistic world resides here.

The article, by Dr. Phil Fernandes, gives a good short summary of my anti-hero: Friedrich Nietzsche. By “anti-hero,” I mean someone who I disagree with who I can nonetheless respect for his or her intellectual stance.

Nietzsche is a philosopher who wrestled with the meaning of ethics in an atheist worldview. His basic conclusion was there were no transcendent ethics, and that we must create our own. He at least acknowledges the reality of a world without God and takes that view of the world to its logical conclusion.

I believe that ethics are consistent and universal. God so created the universe that we have a moral sense that is a reliable guide to actions in the world.

Nietzsche is also an example of ethics “thrown out the window” in the historical movements that adopted his philosophy. I pray for the day when all men will acknowledge the moral law and the Moral Lawgiver.

The scary part is that none of us follows the law. We are all moral relativists when it comes down to it. We justify our actions in many awful ways. Thankfully, there is grace and mercy from God through our faith.

Comments

LPC said…
JK,

I do not know what happened but I commented on this topic here in your blog but I could not find my comments.

Any way have you heard of Immanuel Kant? He wrote that we can never have a positivist proof of God's existence. But after saying that he opened God to come in through the back door and the back door was morality. Basically Kant says that if people want justice then there has to be a perfect judge. Morality is our sense of justice, if there is no God then justice has no meaning. There is no one to reward good works to which I think Atheists (if they are honest) should agree -- that good works (morality) are things they do.

In short, Atheists who absolutely affirm morality have no grounds for the high road if they do not have God for the final truth/evil is defined by the existence of God. He is being illogical to have morality and no God. Most of the time, Atheists are simply doing Kant all over again.

LPC
November 21, 2007
J. K. Jones said…
Good comment, LP.
November 22, 2007
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