Study finds Liberals and Atheists smarter than conservative/religious people

[Solaris]

I'm not from Greece, I spent last semester there, I'm back in the US now. Anyways, I did not say that morality could not develop without Christianity. Anyways, since the argument is going this way, so be it.

Atheists cannot justifiably claim to form a structure of morality without having to hold fast to some sort of universal truth or system of belief. In a wholly secular society, any common ethic that was agreed upon would be arbitrary, since it would be merely based on a wide consensus rather than an absolute standard. All that would be required for a person to refute the morality of an atheistic society would be simply to say "I disagree".

Indeed, you're right. It appears our morality has it's roots to some extent in our evolution - look after others and they'll look after you.

However, to some extent we can transcend this. Whether there is an ultimate standard or not, we all pretty much can identify what is good and evil without needing to invoke a god.

 

[Mogi67]

Indeed, you're right. It appears our morality has it's roots to some extent in our evolution - look after others and they'll look after you.

However, to some extent we can transcend this. Whether there is an ultimate standard or not, we all pretty much can identify what is good and evil without needing to invoke a god.

You can't make a metaphysical claim of identifying good or evil when there is no transcendent truth.

 

[Solaris]

You can't make a metaphysical claim of identifying good or evil when there is no transcendent truth.

This reminds me of platonian philosophy which I don't really agree with.

That there exists a perfect chair, perfect beauty, perfect cold.

That are experiences are simply shadows on a cave wall. No sir, I'm happy with my approximations of good and evil, even if I know they are nothing more than subjective adjectives.

 

[Mogi67]

No sir, I'm happy with my approximations of good and evil, even if I know they are nothing more than subjective adjectives.

Fair enough