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Is It Possible for Atheists to Have "Objective Morality"? (hilariouschaos.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've heard this claim before that it is not possible for atheists to have "objective moral beliefs" because many moral claims are based on religious authority, which atheists do not believe in.

Thus atheists are subjectivists when it comes to morality: each atheist may disagree with the other about what is moral. Obviously this opens atheists up to problems of disagreements, with some who might believe very conventionally "immoral" things are acceptable for them.

This is not of course to say that atheists may not choose to live lives that are some what "moral" (moral, as is often defined by religions)

So, what's the status of the idea of "objective morality" and atheism?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

its a dead end conversation. we have a base morality as defined by the zeitgeist. thats it. if you require some religious moral authority to act appropriately in our society you are broken .

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I know zeitgeist means "Spirit of the Times" or "Whatever we all have decided is now" but a literal translation makes it so much more fun. THE TIME GHOST DICTATES MORALITY!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

We also have some constraints built in by evolution, but yeah.