I was going to respond to a post by Robert Punu just now. But my reply started to get really long-winded and off topic, so I thought this deserved a topic of its own. I guess you could also consider this a formal-ish introduction, since Ive kind of just lurked so far. Im an Objectivist. Thats the philosophy Ayn Rand originated. So I didnt come to be an explicit atheist as any sort of primary thing. I came to think of myself primarily as an Objectivist due to studying Ayn Rands philosophy, and came to think of myself as an Atheist as a consequence of Rands, and mine, rejection of the supernatural, and belief in reason as the foundation of knowledge. This alone will probably put me at odds with every atheist here. Youll consider me a right-winger and lump me in with the Christians because I believe in the constitution and the free market. But this topic will actually introduce you to one of my most fundamental premises informing my political views. The rejection of the morality of altruism. Anyway, on to my response to Robert Punu down there. He had posted some religious persons idea that its the greatest sin in the world to reject that which has created you and supported you. That would be God. And going to hell is the only punishment worthy of that crime. My response: My criticism of that idea comes down to a criticism of the morality of altruism. Consider this. Do you owe your parents for your life? By the fact of your mere existence, are you obligated to be their personal slave because without them, you would not be? No. They created you because they chose to. Presumably they cared for you out of their own selfish joy or love of you. So by your mere existence, they were already getting their payment for everything theyve done for you, and you do not owe any debt to them. If they did not love you or derive any joy for you, then its their own problem that they didnt get the return they expected on their investment in you. If God loves us and thats why he created us and did whatever for us, then did he not already collect his payment from us in the form of his joy over watching us grow? If you do not owe a lifetime of slavery to your parents for having created you, then why do you owe a lifetime of slavery to god for him having created you? I do not believe in God. Im an atheist. But this isnt a question of Gods existence. This is a question of ethics. Altruism, the ethics God imposed on us, is still accepted by many atheists who have rejected God. The idea that we are forever obligated to serve something other than ourselves. Its easiest to see altruism in the animal and human sacrifices that took place in the bible, because our judgment is the least clouded on those topics. The best example of this is when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac. Or when God demands a tithe. Modern Churches ask something like 10% of your paycheck as a tithe to God. Thats also a form of sacrifice. Since most people believe that sacrifice just means benevolence, I should define the term. Sacrifice is giving up something of value, in return for something of lesser or no value. Issac was willing to sacrifice, in the truest sense of the word, his beloved son to God. The church demands that you sacrifice a portion of your income. Etc etc. But most Atheists, even though theyve rejected God, still believe in his morality, altruism. The morality of sacrifice. They stand by Christian morality when they defend things like taxes, the redistribution of wealth, free education, free healthcare, etc. Someone is expected to provide for someone other than themselves. IE, they are expected to sacrifice, and they are made to do so via taxes. Sacrifice to God has been replaced with sacrificing for your neighbor, sacrificing for the needy, or sacrificing to the government. By the same token as above, by your mere existence, if you neither owe anything to your parents, nor to God, then you also dont owe anything to society (contra social contract theory). The only person you might be able to argue you owe something to, is your parents. But I dispelled that notion above. Any benefit you get from the world that has already been built around you, has been paid for by your parents, who did so because they love you. And so every human being is free and clear, rather than owing some debt to society. You can somewhat see, by implication, my rejection of the morality of altruism and acceptance of the morality of rational egoism. We already somewhat accept egoism, in slogans like You should put yourself first or You should do whats best for you. But whenever we state it explicitly, that collides with everything weve absorbed from our culture about how selfishness is wrong. But part of the reason for that is that weve accepted all this extra baggage attached to the concept of selfish. Being selfish doesnt mean stealing and murdering just because you desire it or just because you want something. Being selfish doesnt mean selling your grandma for a nickle. It just means being interested in promoting your own life, promoting and gaining your values, etc. Nowhere does that necessitate brutally stomping on everyone around you. What do I have to gain from hurting others? What do I have to gain from stealing from others? Nothing. What do I have to gain from honest work, learning new things and applying them to overcome challenges? Everything. Thats what reason tells me. I dont always practice what I preach, because Im lazy. But what I preach seems really right and makes a lot of sense. And this underlying view of morality informs my more political views. Which Ive already gotten into arguments with the rest of this page over. Buried deep beneath the political conflict of left vs right, is the ethical conflict of self-sacrifice vs self-interest. Self-sacrifice leads to both the left and the right, since each side wants to enslave you in their own way. Self-interest leads to a live and let live type of political system, like early America was before the government started growing too big. (Believe me, I get called a Republican by Democrats and called a Democrat by Republicans all the time, because I believe both in economic freedom and in social/spiritual freedom.) So, I guess thats that. Have at it.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 04:31:42 +0000
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