Objective Right and Wrong

Okay, today's recap brought to you by Christian FB users who, a) erroneously think that Adolf Hitler was an atheist, but more to the point, b) erroneously conclude that since atheists cannot account for an objective "right" and "wrong", that therefore theism accounts for it by default. False/false.

First things, first, Adolph Hitler was a practicing Catholic, a guy who, on numerous occasions, spoke of doing God's will by the elimination of an entire group of people('should sound familiar). He even wore a belt buckle that said "Gott Mit Uns", which translates to "God with Us". He has been photographed in church proceedings. Atheists don't hang out in church.

Secondly, and more importantly, even if Hitler was an atheist, those theists who are moral objectivists would be wrong if/when they assert that an objective "right" and "wrong" can be found in theism.

To recap, either God adheres to an external moral standard, or he makes his own and/or he is that standard(i.e.."Divine Command Theory"). Both cannot be true.

If the former, we see the problem right away. If the latter, the astute among us see the problem right away, as well.

Let's start from the top:

In Christian theism, "sin" is relative to what biblegod deems "sinful", aka,"wrong".

Did you catch that? There's that one pesky but very important word, "relative".

If the concept of "right" and "wrong" is relative to what "God" commands, then "right" and "wrong" isn't objective at all; it's arbitrary, and thus, subjective. For example, if "God" arbitrarily decided that we should all kill our second born children and that it would be a "sin" to disobey him, surely we all agree that we're going "sin" and disobey the command. Anyone who would obey said command for fear of "sinning", please do speak right up. We want to hear from you. At least, I do.

Now, if one argues that "God" would never, ever command such a heinous, immoral act, then they must also offer what it is that would (presumably) prevent him("God") from commanding it. Let's wait it out.

UPDATE: The individual(theist) who posted the "Hitler" meme has informed me that he posted that meme as an example of what NOT to use on atheists, albeit, that explanation did not accompany the meme, itself. It was explained in the comments, which is a somewhat long thread. I nonetheless stand by what I've laid out regarding theism and its moral objectivists. I contend that there is no objective morality to be found in the body of Christ, or any other type of theism. 

Made Me Think

I saw something today that made me think. On another blog I read, the topic of faith came up, specifically, how faith provides hope and comfort for some people, but not others. For the latter folks, the thought of not ever knowing for certain that they are pleasing God evokes a certain anxiety, aka, fear. After all, God is presumably watching your every move and knows your every thought. Basically, when you're not sleeping, you're under surveillance. Nice.

Anyway, it was one blogger's observation that if faith causes fear, then it is not really faith at all.

This got me thinking: If "faith" provides believers with hope and comfort, then you'd be really hard-pressed to convince me that the thought of losing that hope and comfort would not cause at least some anxiety. But of course, if one can convince one's self to not allow such thoughts, then "faith" is doing precisely what it's intended to do: It's making your brain impervious to certain thoughts. E.g..it would literally be unthinkable that this life is all that there is and that the day will come that we'll never see our loves ever again.

So, if you could entertain the unthinkable, then, once again, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that there wouldn't be any aspect of fear there.

Notwithstanding, once a bell rings you cannot "unring" it. This is why atheists say over and over that, while belief is a choice, non-belief isn't necessarily the same simple matter of choosing. In other words, I cannot set an appointment next week to dupe myself... literally, dupe myself , just because there is a known method by which some people can buffer or even totally escape reality. And yes, unless we're talking solipsism, there is an objective reality that we all live in. I'm not going to sit here and assert that atheism doesn't have its hurdles, but there is something very freeing about shedding my faith in exchange for seeing the world as it really is, instead of(as opposed to) as I want(ed) it to be.

Addendum: After giving what I had written some more thought, I feel it's a good idea that I point out that the reason I deconverted from Christianity is not because I got tired of, and/or, could no longer cope with, not knowing if I was pleasing God. No. The reason I deconverted is because I no longer believe - in fact, I'm unable to believe - that the triune god of Christianity has a referent in reality. There are of course other contributing factors, but that's the conclusion of all factors. I didn't just decide I'm not going to not believe in God anymore because I'm sick of the question marks and/or because I'm disappointed with the constant no-shows. No. If I really believed God was there, I'd still be finding a way to make "faith" work, just like everyone else who believes there's a god actually there. If I don't believe there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, no amount "faith" is going to change that. Only evidence will. 

Stand Alone