Posted by Carlos on June 23, 1998 at 15:34:57:
In Reply to: Ethics posted by rpcman on June 23, 1998 at 14:26:01:
Tammy asked:
I also wonder how an atheist can define ethical behavior.
To which rpcman replied:
For starters click here.
This reference, and the whole subject, reminded me of an article I read last year in Reason Magazine (see the link below) on the neo-conservative challenge to evolutionary theory. The premise of the article is that certain conservative thinkers have concluded that religion really is the opium of the people. In the article, Robert Bork asserts that "belief is probably essential to a civilized future." Based on that belief, these neoconservatives are attacking evolution because they have concluded that it is undermining faith. Again from the article:
"Kristol and his colleagues may worry that once this one thread [belief in the biblical account of creation] is pulled from the fabric of religious belief, perhaps the whole will become unraveled, with grave social consequences. Without the strictures and traditions imposed by a religion that promises to punish sinners, the moral controls that moderate our base desires will lose their validity, leading ultimately to moral chaos."
This is a real concern, and the article at the internet infidels site notwithstanding, there is reason to debate it seriously. As Irving Kristol says in the article:
There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people," he says in an interview. "There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work."
I find these arguments at least partially convincing, and I am not sure that people in general are intelligent enough, enlightened enough, to deal with life without a religious construct. The intelligentsia yes, the masses - maybe not. I realize that is an elitist, arrogant position, and the fact that I even partially agree with it does scare me.
So let's put the question bluntly: Despite the logical (and indeed ethical) shortcomings of religion, can society cope without it?
Comments? [ as if I had to ask :) ]