Question about a role model?

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Why do you people object about Professor Peter Singer being a role model to atheist children about acting morally? He really cares about the welfare of humanity and he wants to improve the human condition. I believe that Peter Singer’s example of morality and ethics shows that one can be a moral person without any resource to a theistic morality system. Also, I read Practical Ethics, and he sincerely hopes his actions are done in the best interest of humanity.
 
A person can be very right-hearted while at the same time being very wrong-headed. Truth keeps charity from becoming tyranny and vice versa. You really can’t have one without the other.
 
Also, the good professor seems only to care about what segment of humanity he ‘endorses’ as human. Unborn children, even born children, are denied the fundamental right to life according to his dictates. For too many today, if life doesn’t meet certain ‘quality controls’, it isn’t regarded as ‘life’ at all.

While it is certainly praiseworthy to work for quality in life–food, clothing, shelter, adequate medical care, etc., life doesn’t ‘stop’ being worthwhile if we have deprivations in any or all of these.
 
Tantum_ergo said:
Also, the good professor seems only to care about what segment of humanity he ‘endorses’ as human. Unborn children, even born children, are denied the fundamental right to life according to his dictates. For too many today, if life doesn’t meet certain ‘quality controls’, it isn’t regarded as ‘life’ at all.

While it is certainly praiseworthy to work for quality in life–food, clothing, shelter, adequate medical care, etc., life doesn’t ‘stop’ being worthwhile if we have deprivations in any or all of these.
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Yes. It’s far easier to care about faceless “humanity” than it is to care for the individual in front of you, especially if the individual in some manner falls below the standard of what you deem worthy of recognition.
 
I personally know of some better atheist role models than Peter Singer. And whose ideas are less dangerous to humanity.
 
Like who? Who would provide a better role model than Singer in the case of acting ethically and morally?
 
ribozyme said:
Like who? Who would provide a better role model than Singer in the case of acting ethically and morally?
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Nobody famous, just personal friends, a few good Marines who treat people decently no matter their state of ability or disability.

I don’t know Singer personally, so I can’t say how he treats his friends. But I do know that disability rights groups such as NotDeadYet do not consider him a friend.
 
You might want to read what some real people who could well be personally affected by his ideas have to say about him. **Activists Protest Peter Singer UMN Lecture **
On March 23, nearly 70 protesters gathered outside a University of Minnesota lecture by Princeton Professor Peter Singer, who was being paid $15,000 for his appearance. The protest was organized by University of Minnesota students Emily Smith and Uriah McKinney. Smith and McKinney addressed their allies, along with student Kathryn Ware, Prof. Alex Lubet and filmmaker Billy Golfus. This event was an exclusively local, grassroots effort. We admire and are thankful for the passion, talent and energy of everyone who organized and attended this event.

Read Alex Lubet’s Speech

Source: notdeadyet.org/
 
Why do atheists need role models? I’m afraid I don’t understand what you are talking about. Role models to teach them what? How to grow up to be “good” citizens? What is this morality without God that you are speaking of?

“If God is dead, everything is permitted” - Jean Paul Sartre
 
Eden said:
Why do atheists need role models? I’m afraid I don’t understand what you are talking about. Role models to teach them what? How to grow up to be “good” citizens? What is this morality without God that you are speaking of?

“If God is dead, everything is permitted” - Jean Paul Sartre
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I think Peter Singer’s utilitarian ethics attempts to undo the damage that Sartre, Rand, and Nietzsche has done. Because of them, it is hard for an atheist to adhere to an ethical system.
 
ribozyme said:
I think Peter Singer’s utilitarian ethics attempts to undo the damage that Sartre, Rand, and Nietzsche has done. Because of them, it is hard for an atheist to adhere to an ethical system.
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But why do atheist children need to act morally and why do they need role models?
 
Eden said:
But why do atheist children need to act morally and why do they need role models?
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Because one can act morally without the threat of commiting a moral sin. Such motivations for acting moral have no effect to an atheist. Atheists need to act morally to make this world a better place.
 
The late author Isaac Asimov somehow managed to be both a committed atheist and secular humanist without, to my knowledge, ever advocating the killing of disabled newborns or of anyone else.
 
ribozyme said:
Because one can act morally without the threat of commiting a moral sin. Such motivations for acting moral have no effect to an atheist. Atheists need to act morally to make this world a better place.
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So, the fear of offending God by sin is replaced in an atheist by the fear of what humanity is capable of unless we have rules? That is what I am understanding you response to be saying. Is that correct?
 
Eden said:
So, the fear of offending God by sin is replaced in an atheist by the fear of what humanity is capable of unless we have rules? That is what I am understanding you response to be saying. Is that correct?
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That is essentially correct. Atheists do not possess fear in an entity that they believe does not exist.

BTW, did Issac Asimov ever right anything about bioethics?
 
Sorry, I meant to say “write”. BTW, does anyone know an atheist philosopher who could be a role model for non-theists to act morally?
 
ribozyme said:
Sorry, I meant to say “write”. BTW, does anyone know an atheist philosopher who could be a role model for non-theists to act morally?
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Which morals are you looking for to be role-modelled? For instance, which of the following would be allowed/not allowed: murder, homosexual acts, greed, gluttony, adultery, pedophilia, lying, and so on. Not every atheist would agree on which of these things would be wrong in order to have a happy society, so you would need to decide on a list before commencing your search for the right fit.
 
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