I had a very interesting if somewhat frustrating conversation with a theist the other day on a different blog on the subject of "moral absolutes". Actually the conversation was about my morality in general, and left me with a lot to ponder. Here's how it came about…

Via another blog I read occasionally, I found an article comparing Humanism to Christian theism with respect to the raising of children. The article had a Christian bias and as you might therefore imagine was pretty uncharitable in its interpretation of Humanism.

Introducing the thrust of the article was a series of four questions asked by a child to a parent, and to which the article supplied answers once from the Humanist perspective, and once from the Christian perspective. Needless to say, being in the position to put words in the mouth of a hypothetical person holding the perspective you disagree with gives you the ability to stack the deck. Wouldn't all arguments be easier if you could just make the other side say whatever you wanted?

The four questions were (paraphrasing), "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", "What's wrong with the world today?", and "How do we fix it?" And to give you a sense of what the typical Humanist response was purported to be, the answer given for the Humanist to the first question is "You are a cosmic accident." 'Cause you know, that's what I say to my kid every day.

So in the interest of imparting some semblance of reality (as well as fairness) to the article, I posted in a comment the answers I would give to such questions if my child asked them, and as you might imagine they bore little resemblance to the answers supplied by the author.

Shortly thereafter other comments (from theists) appeared inquiring about the nature of my morality, with the main question being what was my basis for moral absolutes? I believe, for example, that it's absolutely wrong to kill a person. The position of the theist (as I understood it) was that without a supernatural being to establish a foundation for moral absolutes, there can be no moral absolutes, and for me to believe there are is to be inconsistent with my own naturalistic worldview.

I thought this very interesting. It's true that many atheists (even Humanists) do not believe in moral absolutes. You have your morals, I have mine, etc. So maybe there are no moral absolutes. On that point I'm sure a typical theist would disagree, countering that indeed there are, and they come from whatever deity that theist holds to.

This led to two interesting points in the discussion. First, world-over, in general, humans do seem to recognize a certain core set of universal morals (absolutes), why is that (if not the work of God)? Second, the theist worldview, however "unpleasant" to the Humanist, is at least internally consistent, and provides a foundation for moral absolutes.

Taking these in reverse order: even if it were internally consistent (debatable), that is not a compelling argument for the theist worldview. If one is allowed to make up imaginary entities to account for that which one cannot explain, it's not hard to achieve consistency. Further, if one is relying on the supernatural to provide a basis for their moral code, from my perspective, their moral code is every bit as "invented" as my own.

Regarding the first matter, the commonality of certain mores (exceptions noted, thanks) to me seems to be the result of simple pragmatism. In order for a human society to function, that society will require codes of conduct. You can't have an effective economy if everyone can steal from anyone else whenever they want. You can't have a healthy environment to raise a family or even just get by if everyone can kill anyone else whenever they want. Hence those societies with the most pragmatic moral code (the code that promotes the health and success of the society) will tend to flourish. Add in a supreme being for those folks who need one in order to behave and you've got a winner apparently. Fast forward 10,000 years and everybody has got a similar moral code. At least that's how I see it.

Now I'm no philosopher nor am I an anthropologist. The above speculation makes sense to me, but I readily admit that it is speculation. I put forth, in addition, that it really doesn't matter if I cannot answer the question on commonality of mores. Not having an answer does not prove the God hypothesis, and simply having an answer (i.e. God did it) doesn't make the God hypothesis superior.

Either way, my morality was unshaken by this discussion, and as for the God hypothesis, I still don't see any evidence. In the end it matters little I suppose, religion serves a useful purpose in helping humans to be good to each other, and that benefits humanity. Much of the evil committed in the world comes from intolerance, and religion is just another thing to be intolerant about, for those humans who feel the need to think themselves better than everyone else. Hopefully we'll move beyond that in time, and I'm going to continue doing my part to help that happen.

Peace.

PS: For those of you who want to read the four questions and my answers to them, I will include them here. I'm not linking to the other blog because I don't really want to drag the debate back here.

1. “Who am I?”

You are my child and I love you. You are the most important person in our lives, Mommy and me. You are a wonderful person, full of life and joy. You paint beautiful paintings, draw terrific drawings, and sing lovely songs. Not a day goes by where I don’t marvel at the happiness you bring into my life and the lives of those around you. You are a very special person.

(MISSING QUESTION) “I mean, who are we?”

You mean our family?

(MISSING QUESTION) “No, not just us… everybody. People.”

We are humans–amazing creatures that dwell on this wonderful planet Earth. Our ancestors evolved here over time by repeatedly being the best adapted to their environment, leading up to us, modern humans. Remember always that the thing that distinguishes us from the other creatures on this planet is our brains, that is why we are on top. Most of the animals that evolved here survived by being the fastest, the strongest, having the sharpest vision, the most acute hearing, or the best camouflage. Humans have none of those… most of the animals have us beat in those departments, but we make up for all that with our brains. By being smart we figure out ways to outwit the strongest, the fastest, and those with the best senses. Therefore if we wish to remain here, we should continue striving to be as intelligent as possible, for without our brains we are nothing.

2. “Why am I here?”

Largely because Mommy and I wanted you to be here. We wanted a child to love and to raise. The desire to give birth to a child to love and raise and the happiness that brings are part of the human condition. How could humanity continue to grow and improve itself if it did not produce new generations that could learn from the old, and discover new things?

(MISSING QUESTION) “I mean, what is my purpose in life?”

Right now? To grow up big and healthy and also to learn all that you can, so that when you are old enough you will be able to decide your own purpose. Overall though, you are here to be the best human you can possibly be.

(MISSING QUESTION) “What does that mean? How can I be the ‘best human I can be’?”

If you try your hardest to learn as much as you can, and to always be understanding, kind, considerate, giving, and helpful to your fellow humans, then you are being the best human you can be. Don’t hurt other people, don’t take what’s not yours, and don’t take advantage of other people. Always try to be honest and to comfort those in need.

Be a good person, and when you can, be a great person.

Keep in mind, nobody can be the best human all the time, from time to time you will make mistakes, all humans do. Part of being a good human is understanding that and keeping it in mind when you or other people make mistakes. The important thing when you make mistakes is to learn from them, and to try not to repeat them.

Just remember that whatever you decide to be in life, your Mom and I will still love you.

3. “What’s wrong with the world?”

Nobody is perfect. Human beings have flaws and many of those flaws cause problems for humanity and the world we live in.

One big problem we have is greed. We humans always want more, more, more–to the point where some of us take what is not rightfully ours, or do things which make life harder for other people, or which damage the environment and so forth. So it is important to try and recognize greed in yourself when you feel it, and to remember that in life it is better to have what you need than it is to have what you want.

Another problem we have is people who are power-hungry, which is really another kind of greed. There are people who want to elevate themselves above other people, who want to be in charge and tell other people what to do. We will always need people in charge of course, but those who are in charge should be looking out for our best interests, and not their own. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be president, for example, provided you want to be president because you want to help your fellow humans.

But overall, the worst problem humanity has is intolerance. It is the fundamental root of all other evils. You can’t be power hungry, or greedy without in some way thinking yourself better than others. You can’t knowingly hurt someone without thinking you are better than they are. We come from tribalistic ancestors, and tribalism (my particular group is the best group of all) is still very much alive and with us today. When someone doesn’t like you because of the color of your skin, or thinks you are stupid or less important because of the color of your hair or how you dress, or tries to make you change to be more like themself, or tries to make you feel bad about yourself because of whom you choose to love or how you choose to love them, or hates you if you don’t believe in whatever religion they believe in, they are giving in to the worst kind of thinking humans can engage in. Being intolerant is essentially lessening or denying the humanity of other humans. Always remember, darling, that you are a wonderful and special person, but so is everybody else, and you and me and Mommy are not any better than anyone else is.

4. “How can we fix what is wrong?”

You can’t change people. People can only change themselves honey.

If you try to be the best human you can, then the good you do in life will help make up for some of the bad other people do. And maybe when other people see what a good person you are being, maybe they will be inspired to also be as good a person. Maybe when you grow to be a good adult, young people will see you and look up to you and learn from your example. And if we all try as hard as we can to be the best that we can, then maybe over time humanity will get better.

The most important thing for each of us to do is pass on what we know to others so that people can make their decisions in life with the best information possible. And then of course, the second most important thing to do is to respect the decisions that people make, even if we disagree with them, provided those decisions do not harm us or other people.

No one person can fix the entire world, but as you grow you will probably come to find a problem that is the most important to you… be it a certain aspect of the environment, or politics, or education, or whatever. Work hard to fix that problem. Donate your time, invest in solutions, and try to make it better for other people. Even if you don’t solve the problem, you will be helping to make the world a better place.