Atheism, evil, and the foundations of morality

Atheism, evil, and the foundations of morality

 

Buchenwald guard house
I visited the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald for the first time in the summer of 2015. A naturalistic materialist can oppose such things, of course. She can point out that they cause pain, harm society, and so forth. But can she pronounce them objectively, absolutely, non-metaphorically evil?  (Wikimedia Commons)

 

An entertaining and provocative 17.5 minutes:

 

 

It’s pretty painfully obvious to me that the two atheist interlocutors didn’t really get the point.  Of course, in fairness, they’re scarcely alone in this.  I’ve found that the atheists I’ve spoken to have rarely been able to see the issue, either.  They often assume, quite indignantly, that the claim is that atheists can’t be good people, or that atheists are indifferent to moral evils.  But that isn’t the point at all.

 

 


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