The Source of Morals
A friend and I were at lunch yesterday and the conversation turned to progressive atheism. He proposed this question: Why do progressive atheists support causes, such as universal health care, that have no or little impact on them? This question also applies to greenhouse gas emissions and many currently relevant topics. I found it a very thought provoking question. There are some implicit assumptions in the question that I found troublesome, but it was a worthwhile topic. I’ll share my answer.I suspect many progressive atheists are humanists a la William James. Disbelieving divine retribution but desiring a better world, progressive atheists value life and, not believing in afterlives, work to improve the quality of this life not only for themselves but for all. I described environmentalism as a moral decision, which led us to discuss the source of morals in the absence of religion.
I related an NPR piece I recently heard featuring Joshua D. Greene discussing his research into morality using neuroimaging. My friend suggested that perhaps religion is a justification and codification of morality rather than the source. This fits with Greene’s experience showing that people of all and no religions make the same moral decisions. It was Greene’s theory, if I recall correctly, that morality is an evolutionary adaptation to social interaction.
My mother and I once had a conversation in which she said that she would expect atheists to all be murders as a result of not fearing god. In fact, I hear this a lot in the media. I suspect that if those people, my mother included, lost faith they would not immediately turn to murder. I imagine they’d find that morals can operate independently of religion.
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