Re: atheistic morality
I am in the minority of agnostics and tend to agree with you. Except that:
1. While there is no inherent right or wrong without God there is lots of what might be called deduced right or wrong. Thus once someone says something like "I believe it is wrong to inflict great pain" then he must believe that chopping someone's finger off is wrong.
2. The fact that there is no inherent right or wrong has no real implications. It doesn't mean that there is no reason not to rape someone for instance. Although if you like doing it, you feel no guilt about it (that's important), and you are sure there will be no repercussions if you do it, you should do it if you are an atheist. And in fact they do. Conquering armies do it all the time. But that conclusion certainly doesn't imply there is a God. It just implies that we are all simply animals with a brain. So what?
Anyway when philosophers argue about right and wrong they are not being silly as long as they agree on some initial axioms. If they are arguing about what those initial axioms SHOULD be then perhaps I agree with you.
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