06-26-2008, 07:13 PM
kaboobie Wrote:Do athiests believe in any absolutes?
here's where i'm coming from:
I'm a Christian... but I'm not a dogmatic 'throw my Bible in your face and condemn you to hell' Christian.
I respect the beliefs (or lack thereof) of other religions or philosophies, in fact, I enjoy seeing other viewpoints... so, if i ask a lot of questions, please know that i'm not argumentative, i'm really just inquisitive about these things.
so.... back to my question: Do athiests believe in absolutes? I know that there are definitely truths that science has given us (such as, the laws of physics)... but as far as moral absolutes... is there a difference between right and wrong? and without a diety to provide some sort of moral judgment, how are absolutes determined?
That's yes and no. For example: Im absolutely positive that 99% of the general population has no idea how to drive a car properly.
But no, there really are no true absolutes, even with the laws of physics. Sure you can make grand generalizations like "Equation X works for most of the observational universe" except when you get down to the atomic level, things become quite a bit wonky. So even the laws of physics aren't absolutes: hence string theory, which is used to help explain how these things work on the atomic level.
Morals are subjective, even within the world of religion. There are the general ones most people of any faith, persuasion, walk of life, what have you follow. "Killing people is bad" would be one or "Giving someone who is starving some food is good", but no matter how you slice it its all the in between stuff thats different for everyone anyway. The FCC censorship on radio is a perfect example of what i am talking about. To some (probably a lot at this point), cursing on air is no big deal. However there are people out there who truly and honestly believe its 100% immoral to curse and therefore should be banned from being broadcast. The reason for the immorality they give is very religious based. Sure it's easy to just pass these people off as crazy nutjobs, but its just an example of how even within the world of religion morals are not absolute, and everybody does have a differing opinion of what is right and wrong.
Most people, religious or not, and knowingly or not, just go about their business and dont treat people in ways they would not wanna be treated. The golden rule if you will.