Anonymous
7/11/2025, 9:12:36 PM No.212595975
Can we talk about how fucking stupid this line is, please?
The statement on its face is that people who act decently because they believe that there is a punishment for sin or a reward for virtue, are essentially acting selfishly and thus are bad people. But left unexamined is what the alternative is. Are you supposed to magically know what "decent" means, and then act that way for no reason, with no expectation that virtue is rewarded and sin punished? Is being a sucker mandatory to be a good person?
I've never understood this because it's clearly the sort of thing a fedora would say, except that fedoras aren't supposed to believe in objective morality. But this only makes sense at all if you DO believe in objective morality. Decency can't be subjective, or else it's just personal preference, maybe I think I'm still being decent if I cannibalize someone politely. So it's got to be objective, but objective morality implies some sort of arbiter of morality, which in term implies judgement, and if there's judgement, then it's entirely rational to behave morally to avoid punishment and to gain reward.
Where did this meme of atheists being smart come from?
The statement on its face is that people who act decently because they believe that there is a punishment for sin or a reward for virtue, are essentially acting selfishly and thus are bad people. But left unexamined is what the alternative is. Are you supposed to magically know what "decent" means, and then act that way for no reason, with no expectation that virtue is rewarded and sin punished? Is being a sucker mandatory to be a good person?
I've never understood this because it's clearly the sort of thing a fedora would say, except that fedoras aren't supposed to believe in objective morality. But this only makes sense at all if you DO believe in objective morality. Decency can't be subjective, or else it's just personal preference, maybe I think I'm still being decent if I cannibalize someone politely. So it's got to be objective, but objective morality implies some sort of arbiter of morality, which in term implies judgement, and if there's judgement, then it's entirely rational to behave morally to avoid punishment and to gain reward.
Where did this meme of atheists being smart come from?
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