The Moral Argument Based upon Moral Values and Duties
Welcome back to part 3 of this 5 part series.
You can visit part 1 by clicking here
And part 2 here
- If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
Objective morals don’t exist, so your god doesn’t exist? Oh this should be easy.
I would argue that the moral code of the homo sapien has evolved over time. We can witness this in the fossil record, long predating the writings of the caananites that attempted to codex their moral code in their scripture which jews and Christians now hold so dearly. We can correlate brain growth to the changing skull shapes of our ancestors and tie this in with how groups moved and began to care for their sick(46:00) as opposed to abandoning them as was seen before the development of the brain and subsequent emergence of empathy.
We survive better in groups and even more so in the time of our ancestors when we were exposed to nature and predators. Hunting and gathering was also a team event. In order for the group to survive certain codes had to be followed . Don’t kill a member, don’t steal from a member, don’t rape your group members, don’t fornicate with another group member’s spouse. These simple rules formed naturally for the good of the group. There need not be a deity handing these things down from heaven.
My above assertion is supported by neurobiology. We are now seeing that certain morals are innate to the human brain. This has been “burned” into us over millions of years of brain evolution and living in groups.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163302/
Abstract
Morality may be innate to the human brain. This review examines the neurobiological evidence from research involving functional magnetic resonance imaging of normal subjects, developmental sociopathy, acquired sociopathy from brain lesions, and frontotemporal dementia. These studies indicate a “neuromoral” network for responding to moral dilemmas centered in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and its connections, particularly on the right.
Also:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3083636/
Abstract
Moral emotions represent a key element of our human moral apparatus, influencing the link between moral standards and moral behavior. This chapter reviews current theory and research on moral emotions.
We also see that morals transcend local customs, what may be moral for some may not be for another. The vegetarian tribe would see the meat eating member as immoral perhaps, or the jewish family would see the member that eats shellfish or pork as immoral.
What makes this argument so compelling is not only that it is logically airtight but also
Trendingthat people generally believe both premises. In a pluralistic age, people are afraid of imposing
their values on someone else
Above is simply an argumentum ad populum from WLC and is evidence of nothing.
2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.
For this premise I have to return to my points above. Innate morals do exist, they could be seen as objective such as do not kill but that goes out the window when we slip in a death penalty in some cultures. I would suggest innate over objective is a better term, and we can trace their appearance through hundreds of thousands of years, they are not evidence of a deity. Merely a product of evolution and work for the good and survival of groups.
3. Therefore, God exists
Nope!!
If there were no other explanations for moral behavior then a simple man could be forgiven for thinking maybe that they could only come from a god but there are other reasons for morality. We can simply shave off the deity which there is no evidence for and follow the trail of history
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