I have been surprised and disappointed at the amount of unintelligent debate being generated by one of my recent memes - see here
If it was just theists having a whinge, that would be fine, but nearly all negative responses appear to have come from secular bloggers. I think this is something worth talking about - for those without spiritual beliefs who defend religious moral relativism are, by extension, aiding the spread of scriptural barbarisms.
atomicsocialist had this to say: “my point is, all morality is based off of the sheer urge to do good in humanity and anything else is a social construct. And New Atheists claiming an action is immoral because the religious have a different rationalization for said action is ridiculous, and laughably not self aware”
Let me clarify this immediately - the meme does not imply theists are immoral. “New” atheists do no claim moral choices fall in a neat dichotomy. The meme, an out of context snippet though it may be, raises one specific question - is it more moral to do something without expectation of reward.
Personally, I see little room for debate on that point, clearly the answer is yes. But atomicsocialist asserts that all morality is based on the mental ‘feel-good’ effect of altruism. Clearly the answer is no. Regular people do terrible, unmoral things and feel good about it, thanks to religious morality.
Is forcing women to live in cloth bags moral? I am a Mullah and I say it is. I feel good when I make my daughters and wife put on the burqa, and when I see other men do the same. I know that I should feel good because my moral code has been dictated to me, as well as that great reward of the afterlife.
Undisputedly, people do things that make themselves feel good, but that is absolutely no basis for all morality, and feeling good because you did something is not intrinsically linked to the act itself being good.
atomicsocialist goes on to say in another post: I think he fundamentally misunderstands why someone commits a moral action. Personal satisfaction, that rush of neurotransmitters is the foundation for it, religion, bettering the world, whatever you say it was about is most likely the rationalization. So to compare two rationalizations and say “Those who rationalize this way are not moral while those who rationalize this way are” is ridiculous and irritating.
Here atomicsocialist omits all immoral actions that are considered by others to be moral and which they feel good about doing. This omission neatly avoids the very real suffering of women and girls in the Middle East today. It sidesteps all the evils in the world that are seen as contextually moral. In many of these instances the motivation is drawn explicitly from religious morality.
