Irrefutable Ethics
Richard Taylor on the intractable beliefs people hold about how we should behave.
How to explain this if not as a manifestation of the “psychology of objectivism”. And what could possibly encompass objectivsm more broadly than God and religion?
And “the people” still flock to it by the millions because what could possibly be more irrefutable than something that you merely have to believe is true in your head? This and the fact that in the face of catastrophe what else is there?
With God all bases are covered. It provides one with a moral narrative on this side of the grave along with the claim that in following it “religiously” you are certain to attain immortality and salvation – in paradise no less – for all the rest of eternity.
Is there really any other way – a better way – in which to explain its appeal?
That’s always been my own argument basically. No God, no omniscient/omnipotent foundation from which to differentiate right from wrong, good from bad behavior. After all, how else to explain the moral and political conflicts that have afflicted the human species now for thousands of years. If the Humanists weren’t able to to concoct objective “rules of behavior” after all that time, how confident can we be that they ever will. Instead, you have philosopnhical contraptions derived almost entirely from worlds of words, the truth of which being predicated on conflicting sets of assumptions and definitions. Either that or one or another political ideology. And look at the devastating consequences they have wrought down through the ages.
Of course this gets trickier in the modern world. Especially when religious denominations come into conflict. After all, which God exactly is this motivation derived from – the right one [ours] or the wrong one [theirs]? But given the likes of politicians like Donald Trump, there’s is little doubt that right and wrong itself can still be anchored to God by any particular officials of the government. All it takes here are flocks of sheep and election booths.
But, then, historically, look at the No God alternatives – Communism? Fascism? Or whatever North Korea is?