Absolutely Relativist Morality?

One of the more popular ideas promoted by theism is that without god atheists can have no sense of morality and by promoting that some actions are moral while others are immoral we are somehow, in essence, pointing towards a higher power. Bam, atheism is defeated and god reigns supreme… Not so fast though because this argument is actually just plain awful. First and foremost is that it once again confuses what the word atheist means, which is “a lack of belief in a god or gods.” Anything else falls outside the domain of atheism. So an atheist can be logical or illogical, they can be incredibly smart or incredibly dumb. As I often say, just because you answer the easiest question on the quiz, it doesn’t mean you are a straight A student. Now the theist will claim that we are promoting some standard to atheism that theism doesn’t also enjoy but this is not the case. A theist can be a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, or any other number of religions. Theism simply means that they have a belief in a god or gods. Anything else falls into another category. So if you are a Christian, you are a theist and you follow the Christian faith. A Muslim is a theist that follows the Islamic faith. The word theist does not in any way connote anything outside of the simple fact that they believe in some form of god. Secondly, this argument starts with the premise that morals must come from a higher authority and that this higher authority must in the end be god. Affirming the Consequent is a logical fallacy that can be explained in the following example. When I am drunk I make bad decisions. Yesterday I made a bad decision. Therefore yesterday I must have been drunk. Or in regards to the current blog… Morals come from a higher power. A god is an example of a higher power. Therefore morals must come from god. The reason this is a fallacy is because it attempts to prove its stance by working the premises to fit the stance. It is doing nothing more than injecting ones own beliefs into their argument and rejecting any argument that goes against that persons beliefs. This argument is used because it is convenient and because it sounds good if you don’t think too much about it. Lastly, many theists like to look at the world in black and white and appeal to the idea of absolute morality. In other words that some things are accepted as moral and immoral by the entirety of the human race and so they must come from some source outside of the human race. This attempts to separate humanity from morality and act as if it is a separate entity unto itself. Without the higher power we could never understand morality and so we would all live in a world of absolute chaos. We can all agree that morals exist, I’d like to believe that I am a fairly moral person. I don’t murder, I don’t rape, I don’t steal, and as best as I can I try not to do anything that would cause harm to another person. The difference being that most atheists, not all mind you but most, come from the perspective of relative morality. What this means is that our morals change over time as we progress or regress as a species. I believe that our morals evolved in such a way to promote the success of the species and allow us to use the least amount of energy possible. If you don’t have to worry about your neighbor trying to murder you, you can stop worrying about murdering your neighbor and get down to more of that sweet sweet procreative bedroom booty.Absolutely relativist morality? *** Moral relativism and atheism. If your musings were categorized appropriately as your points of inquiry, and those which right now leave you reveling in moral relativism and atheism, then that would represent a high integrity. Since you can´t resist the absolutist impulsivity of asserting these apparent conditions as absolute truth, well, you lose the full benefit that comes with hedging and qualifying with conditionals of humble self-awareness. You are, it appears, intoxicated with the freedom from the narrow blinders of antiquated denominations. My upbringing involved a secular humanist atheist dad who disavowed Catholicism for modern education. He had a sweet book on Comparative Religion by scholar Huston Smith, and a full library including Carl Jung´s work. By 10th grade, I felt hungry for a non-objectified relational paradigm to the Entity that Created the Forces of the Universe, and assumed Smith´s description of the Chinese Tao, along with a burgeoning interest in Therapeutic Psychology, eventually getting my bachelor´s in Bio Anthro. In a nutshell, my continuing professional and personal experience and development through Social Services, Financial Services, eco- and social justice activism, and holistic workshops included plenty of Buddhism and martial arts up to my mid-life masters in Intl Relations and Sustainability. Unitarian Universalism had given me the term “spiritual path” back in 10th grade already when I followed my nose, and I used it as a touchstone perspective. I began engaging with Christianity conscientiously when I found Christian Science Reading Rooms and their pragmatic beneficent providential kind of theistic approach. As for the absolutism of relativism, I suggest you expand your frames of reference before setting yourself in stone. I went to Africa for a year, studied a few martial arts, even as I tried to help mostly Afro-Americans. If you don´t have the desire to spend a year teaching in China, ask yourself why, and why not? What is the meaning of the term “globalization”? “Sustainability”? Where do Universities come from? What is the meaning of the integrity Jesus taught in relation to church doctrines, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the founding of the UN by FDR´s vision? Your perception of “relativism” is distinctly framed in what is in fact an absolute value system that has not been sustained by any system but that of Christ´s Western legacy. Sorting it out takes a sociological lens, for starters, but Bio Anthro helps stay clear about the interdisciplinarity. Good luck, and count your blessings like Jesus in a Shao Lin closet with an eye towards Divine Love.