Board index ‹ Morality

[Where's the Beef?]

Christopher Hitchens is a brilliant man and posed a brilliant challenge to all religious believers. He has claimed not one person has been able to answer it, and I was wondering if that still stands correct. The question or challenge is as follows.

Can you name a moral action or statement made by a believer, then to say that you cannot imagine a nonbeliever making this moral statement or undertaking this moral action?

He has asked this question in multiple debates, perhaps some are better phrased then this one but can it be done? Perhaps one of you can do it.

[jimwalton]

Maybe I'm being a bit naive, but I don't understand why this qualifies as the "ultimate challenge". The premise behind objective morality is that there is a transcendent standard to define it, not that only certain individuals are capable of it. Each person is free to commit or perform whatever moral or immoral act they choose, whether from true motives or false, so it seems to me that his ultimate challenge rings false. The more pertinent questions are (1) how is such morality defined and (2) have you you chosen a moral reason to engage in such behavior, or a different reason?

I don't think believers assume nonbelievers are incapable of moral acts, but that the ground of those moral acts is found in a fluid benchmark rather an anchored one.

[Fire Spirit]

> The premise behind objective morality is that there is a transcendent standard to define it

This is not potentially not correct, depending upon how you define "transcendent standard." Transcendent to what? And what is the nature of this standard?

[jimwalton]

Christians generally believe that morality is grounded in the character of God, and objective morality is humanity living by the unchangeable standard to God's transcendent nature. God's nature, as revealed in the Bible, comprises such attributes as truth, justice, love, forgiveness, mercy, et al. What I was saying is that every human being has the capacity to be moral (truthful, just, loving, etc.). But atheists, for example, may behave that way for the well being of humanity (a definition that can change depending on one's worldview), but Christians would behave that way because such behavior is being Godlike and doesn't change. For instance, Hitler tried to exterminate the Jews "for the well being of humanity," but Christians perceive his genocidal mayhem to have been wrong, based on God's character.