This article from WaPo describes a soldier who has been discriminated against in the U.S. Army because he is an out-of-the-closet atheist in a largely Christian institution. As a result he has filed a lawsuit naming the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for harassment. He says he has been called immoral and a devil worshiper, among other things since his atheism has become common knowledge.
This is wrong on several levels. First of all, the U.S. Army is obviously a government institution, and therefore shouldn't be supporting any religion at all (that whole separation of church & state thing), but as we all know is largely Christian. Technically, an Army Chaplain can help you no matter what your religion, but I think it is rare to find one that can truly understand another religion's ways. (It's been awhile since I was a soldier myself, and I thankfully did not experience these struggles so I may be talking out of my hat on this one.)
The point I really want to talk about here, though, is the idea of this soldier being branded as "immoral" because he is an atheist - because he is without God. I personally take offense to these kinds of comments because I, too, am an atheist and yet in no way am I immoral (although I certainly do not claim that I always do the right thing...I just mean that in general I view myself as a moral person.) I know many atheists and what I know of them is that they are kind and courteous and cognizant of moral rights and wrongs. In fact, many of the Christians we all hear about every day are hypocritical, intolerant, dogmatic, and extremely judgmental. Obviously it's not a representative sample, but these words do not at all describe the atheists I am aware of.
I suppose the central question here is: "What does it mean to be moral or immoral?" Does being a moral person require having faith in God (particularly the Christian God) or believing that all others who do not accept this doctrine will burn in the eternal fires of hell? Obviously I think that's ridiculous. For me, being a moral person means living life free of intolerance and narrow-minded judgments of others about whom we know nothing save for their religious views. It means being aware and taking care of those around us that need our help; it means living in genuine kindness and respect for other people, for animals, for the world around us. I fail to see how faith in God is required for this.
Frankly, I see it as less moral to live morally because of a belief that God will punish you if you don't. Isn't it more virtuous to live this way because of intrinsic motivation, such as that you believe it is the right thing to do, than to do it out of self-absorbed fear that otherwise you'll be damned to hell?
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Andie said:
"Frankly, I see it as less moral to live morally because of a belief that God will punish you if you don't. Isn't it more virtuous to live this way because of intrinsic motivation, such as that you believe it is the right thing to do, than to do it out of self-absorbed fear that otherwise you'll be damned to hell?"
How very Kantian of you. Kant emphasized the importance of one's motivation to whether or not what you did was of any distinctively moral worth.
Another philosophical gem comes to mind: the Euthyphro dilemma. Is what is right, right because God wills it, or does God will what is right because it is right? If the former, then what counts as right looks entirely arbitrary: if God happened to think that torturing babies was pretty cool, then it would be right. On the other hand, if we go with the second horn of the dilemma, then God is no answer to the question, what is moral? We still need an independent account of what is right and why.
The two most dominant philosphical ethical traditions in modern times, Kantian ethics and utilitarianism, do not rely on God in their substantive accounts of what we ought to do and why. (One caveat: Kant thinks the idea of God serves an important role in moral theory as an ideal of moral perfection, but this idea is not used at all in Kant's explanation of what makes right action right). So I, too, get really annoyed when I hear about how atheists could not possibly have any kind of moral compass, and must be completely amoral agents.
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