For the Sake of Science

People are often confused by the idea of how morality works in a world without God. “Why”, the argument goes, “without God, you have no basis for acting one way or another as a matter of right or wrong.” This is a bad argument and here’s why: It assumes that morality is something which must be objective in order to exist. That assumption is not only unproven, it’s actually incorrect. Morality has always been a purely human affair, and we have plenty of philosophical, logical, and even scientific arguments to bolster that fact. Simply because there is no objective grounding to morality does not mean it ceases to exist. And why would it? It’s something that’s evolutionarily and culturally emergent in the first place. To say it must be objective in order to be real would be like saying finding red heads attractive would need to be objectively grounded in order to be legitimate.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: morality, Thought of the day |