My Zen Arcade

So, one of the things that comes up again and again is whether or not atheists can be moral.  Some theists say no, others say yes.  But given the polling data, I think we have to say that even the ‘yes’ people aren’t completely truthful.

I’ve always wondered about that.  I can understand how, maybe, some of the nay-sayers have never met an atheist and so they have zero data outside of their own lives to work with, but I don’t believe all of them have that issue.  Further, if a person can and is moral, why would you have issue with him to the level present in this country because of his lack of faith?

It seems reasonable to judge whether a person is moral or not based on their history of action.  Obviously, sometimes you don’t know a person very well so you use other factors if you need to make such a call.  You might look at the fact that they share the same religion, served in the military, or what political party they are in, etc.

Now, if you are a theist meeting an atheist, and you believe strongly that morality comes from god, you might believe that an atheist is leading a moral life, but ultimately that they are much closer to someone like Dexter than yourself.  For those of you who have never watched the show, the title character is an orphan raised by a policeman father.  Early on, the father recognizes that Dexter is a sociopath, almost completely amoral and has almost no ability to empathize.  In short, his adopted son is almost destined to become a serial killer.  He understands that the boy has no moral context and few, if any, significant bonds with other people.  To try and save his son (and his future victims), the father convinces and teaches the boy to ‘fake it’.  He trains him to appear to live a normal life and act appropriately with other people (like smiling in photographs, for example).  This ends up being insufficient, but it works together with Dexter being a serial killer of criminals.

My point is, Dexter appears to live a moral life but, in fact, has no morals (this is a shallow interpretation of the show but…).  And I think that is how many theists see us, as fakers.  Oh, sure, they know I won’t steal their wallet because, in the past, I haven’t, and maybe they believe that this pattern of behavior will continue.  But what if I am in a totally new situation, like raising my first child, sitting on a jury, or leading the country?  These are new experiences and who know how I’ll react if, in fact, I’m just faking my way through it all?

Strangely, I feel similarly towards religious people who follow a particular text (as opposed to those who just have an amorphous belief in god).  No one follows their text completely, in part because it would simply become paralyzing.  But the bits they do follow seem random to me.  Lots of people ready to comdemn others for being sinful, even though the bible says you shouldn’t do that.  Lots of people yelling about gays being abominations before god, but how many of them help the poor (which the bible talks about MUCH more)?  If you claim to get your morality from a text, but you also take that morality at random, how can I trust you?  Yes, I know you’ll do A in situation B because I’ve seen you do that before.  But what if you are in a totally new situation, like raising your first child, sitting on a jury, or leading the country?

(Yeah, I’m talking to you, John Edwards)