The Argument from Morality
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The argument from morality, also known as the Axiological Argument (axios = value), is one of many arguments for the existence of a god.
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Examples
- Only a god can provide moral standards for humans to live by.
Discussion
- Where does God get his morals from?, this is also a rephrase of the Euthyphro dilemma, why not simply state that this comes by Humanism as Occam's Razor would prefer?
- There have been many civilization that didn't get their morality from the bible yet concluded the Golden rule way before Jesus:
Do not return evil to your adversary; Requite with kindness the one who does evil to you, Maintain justice for your enemy, Be friendly to your enemy. - Akkadian Councils of Wisdom (from the ancient Babylonian civilization that existed two millennia before Jesus was born)
Shame on him who strikes, greater shame on him who strikes back. Let us live happily, not hating those who hate us. Let us therefore overcome anger by kindness, evil by good, falsehood by truth. Do not hurt others in ways that would be hurtful to yourself. - Buddhist wisdom (written centuries before Jesus was born)
Return love for hatred. Otherwise, when a great hatred is reconciled, some of it will surely remain. How can this end in goodness? Therefore the sage holds to the left hand of an agreement but does not expect what the other holder ought to do. Regard your neighbor's gain as your own and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. Whoever is self-centered cannot have the love of others. - Taoist wisdom (written centuries before Jesus was born)
- Good and evil are psychological constructs that vary across time and societies. This proves that morality is subjective and not absolute, for example: do you agree that stealing is bad?, according to the ten commandements they are. But then how about this, if you were a poor mother who got 5 starving children and suddenly you found an apple tree whom nobody guards, knowingly that it belonged to someone you steal it in order to feed your children. A mother going through such trouble might have been correct in her action even though stealing is considered to be generally bad
- "The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us as much as the word telephone or motor car." - George Bernard Shaw
There are many laws that Christians are very unwilling to accept such as stoning unruly children at Deuteronomy 21:18-21 and other old testament laws, although many would claim such laws are no longer valid(which is debatable) alot of them would be very willing to execute homosexuals citing old testament laws such as Leviticus 20:13
- This is a mere argument from ignorance. If God is used to fill the gap of knowledge then we might as wwll ask why he does it in this specific way and how does he deliver these morals to us?, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" and if God is the source of morality then this has to be proven with the skepticism of science and with empirical evidence. For one, why is there evidence to the contrary and that atheists are actually more moral than theists?, discussed further in freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Percentage_of_atheists
- How does God explain the existence of sociopaths who have no conscience or a sense of guilt?
- Albert Einstein, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists, by Madalyn Murray O'Hair:
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Refrences
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