Atheist Empathy, or “How I Got My Conscience Back.”

[rug]

I’m going to tread in dangerous territory with this entry. For one thing, I’m going to lay bare a lot of the inside of my brain. And I’m always a little wary of making myself too vulnerable in front of the impersonal, anonymous world of the internet. For another, I’m going to admit something that will make a lot of Christians do a little happy dance — something that might make some non-believers a little uncomfortable. But I’m going to end up in a very beautiful place. I hope my gentle readers will take the whole journey with me, and quote mine this piece sparingly. ’Cause I’m going to give the haters a couple of gems.

Here’s the first. I believe an atheist materialist morality begins with the assumption that no human has “inherent value.” However, I believe that beginning with this assumption allows us to reach an endpoint of human empathy and sympathy unattainable by theists. More directly, I believe that beginning with no intrinsic value in life, we can actually have MORE respect and love for our fellow man in the end.

Here’s another gem for the haters: I believe that humans are nothing more than very intelligent animals. If we think of them as “lab rats” — that is, detach ourselves from empathy and examine their thoughts and emotions as nothing more than reactions to their environment, they become incredibly predictable. More importantly, we discover that what we think of as a human’s “character” is little more than an aggregate of their (predictable) reactions to environmental stimuli over which they had no control.

In a nutshell, this is what a lot of social science is all about. We do studies where we get a large sample of subjects, put them through some sort of environmental manipulation, and observe the results. The (in)famous Milgram Experiment is a great example. The people who “shocked” their “peers,” even when they were apparently in great pain and distress? They were not bad people. They were just people. And if we were to replicate the experiment a hundred times, we’d probably get very similar results in all cases, even though we’d have a completely new group of subjects every time. And that’s exactly the point. The Milgram Experiment and studies like it prove that each of us really is very much like all the rest of us.

http://livinglifewithoutanet.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/atheist-empathy-or-how-i-got-my-conscience-back/

Thought-provoking conclusions.

[dmallind]

1. Some good, some asinine

I believe an atheist materialist morality begins with the assumption that no human has “inherent value.”

A very far stretch at best, utterly unfounded and likely self-serving bullshit to try to establish a "shocking" thesis. I've discussed ethics and morality with dozens of atheists (a sample I cheerfully admit is small and subjective, but I will stack it against most no problem) and not a single one has even hinted this. In fact without exception they have either stated voluntarily or agreed with the idea that a single, short human lifespan with no hereafter in a species evolved to be part of a cohesive group makes it very inherently valuable indeed. Far more so than it would be as a created plaything going through a 70 year audition for a trillion-aeon existence after death.

I believe that humans are nothing more than very intelligent animals.

Unquestionably true. Irrelevant to and if pushed one way or the other contradictory to the first assertion however. The value we place on animals is directly correlated to their intelligence. Few but the most extreme vegans mourn a passing chicken and even then only in the abstract not as individuals; millions devote their lives and fortunes to taking care of dogs, and are devastated when one dies0.

[NMMNG]

2. Hmmm...

Here’s the first. I believe an atheist materialist morality begins with the assumption that no human has “inherent value.”
He may think that way, but I don't. Life does have inherent value. What's more, it's easier to see the inherent value of all life when you're not being told by some book, some religious authority, etc, that certain people are more valuable than others. Life also becomes more precious when you realize that your life here is limited--that once you die that's it--rather than thinking you're only here for a while and then you go on to eternity in SuperHappyFunLand.


Here’s another gem for the haters: I believe that humans are nothing more than very intelligent animals.

We are. Sadly we often act worse than the animals we're supposedly more intelligent and evolved than.

The (in)famous Milgram Experiment is a great example. The people who “shocked” their “peers,” even when they were apparently in great pain and distress? They were not bad people....

They were people doing what they were told by an "authority figure", regardless of the consequences to another person. Sadly that's what too many people do in the name of religious beliefs, political agendas and other such things. It's so easy to dehumanize the "other" and do evil to him when you're acting for a noble cause.

[westerebus]

3. For your penance.

For using "atheist materialist morality" and "inherent value" in the same sentence, you will do three, no, four bong hits for jesus. In addition no masturbation for twenty four hours. Now, go in peace and in grateful silence that you weren't tased by a good and just mob of Milgramian "peers".