One popular argument people use to justify faith is that, without God, the world would take a downward spiral into immorality and anarchy. How do you react to this?<\/p>\n
\u2026Morality exists despite religion, not because of it. The hijacking of morality by religious clerics is one of the greatest scams of history.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s never been clear to me what the relationship is between a god and morality. What does God have to do with morality? If the universe was created by a being that we call \u201cGod,\u201d how does this necessitate that we should behave in certain ways? I just don\u2019t understand this move.<\/p>\n
If one wants to claim that God is imbued with certain characteristics, like kindness and charity, then I want to know how someone knows this. Perhaps there was a being that created the universe but it doesn\u2019t care one iota what we do with ourselves. Again, the relationship between God and morality can\u2019t be accepted by fiat. Just as one can\u2019t accept by fiat that God created the universe and now it doesn\u2019t care about us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Anyone who thinks that there is a connection between morality and religion, God or anything supernatural is seriously disconnected from reality.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a great, short interview with Peter Boghossian, professor of philosophy at Portland State University.\u00a0 Sometimes we expend a lot of energy to say what can be summed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,27],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-morality"],"yoast_head":"\n
Meet Professor Boghossian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Professor Boghossian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-22T16:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey L. Falick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html\",\"name\":\"Meet Professor Boghossian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-22T16:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-22T16:51:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\"},\"description\":\"Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Meet Professor Boghossian\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/\",\"name\":\"The Atheist Rabbi\",\"description\":\"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick\"},\"description\":\"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet Professor Boghossian","description":"Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet Professor Boghossian","og_description":"Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html","og_site_name":"The Atheist Rabbi","article_published_time":"2012-05-22T16:51:00+00:00","author":"Jeffrey L. Falick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey L. Falick","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html","name":"Meet Professor Boghossian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-22T16:51:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-05-22T16:51:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372"},"description":"Courtesy of a friend and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (and I would hasten to add Sanity), I received a link to Bent Spoon with\u00a0 a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/05\/meet-professor-boghossian.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Meet Professor Boghossian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/","name":"The Atheist Rabbi","description":"The blog of Jeffrey L. Falick, Secular Humanistic Rabbi.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/fc95554b64c99ed45146c32bf5cd2372","name":"Jeffrey L. Falick","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f4f93646f1bdd3c145883cb358ed21b6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeffrey L. Falick"},"description":"Jeffrey L. Falick is the Secular Humanistic Rabbi of The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Michigan. He is also certified as a Senior Humanist Celebrant by the American Humanist Association and is president and founder of Humanists of Southeast Michigan.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/author\/jfalick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}