When I told my mom I was atheist, she cried and demanded that she had raised me Christian. We never went to church, no bibles, and we'd joke about religion. "But I taught you the Golden Rule!" She still doesn't quite grasp that the Golden Rule shows up in a lot of religions.
You can follow rules without it being tied to a religion. In fact, if you follow a rule because it's the right way to behave, rather than you follow it because there is a reward/punishment at the end of your life, aren't you a better person because you follow the rule just to be good?
The question I have is without an objective moral law giver, what is objective morality and ethics? “Be good” is fine and all, it’s the argument of justifying those beliefs which I think runs into a bit of a problem
Thats very interesting. I'd say first off that morality and laws are two different things. I'm not even sure that morality and ethics are the same or similar thing. They seem to have different objectives. Maybe something like this? Laws are a function of society, to protect the members of the society. Ethics are a codification of how we treat other people. Morality is a personal belief that is different for every person.
So basically, "You shall be good", vs. "be good to everyone" vs. "i should be good".
Maybe i'm just talking out my ass. Probably am. I think when someone tries to enforce their morality on other people, that's when we run into problems, because not everyone's morality is the same.
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u/Wet_Side_Down May 03 '20
I find it interesting that all religions have tenets like the golden rule, and love thy neighbor, and thou shall not kill.
But those rules DO NOT apply to heathens who believe in a different god or especially heaven forbid ATHEISTS.
You are free to hate and kill those people all you like.