Isn’t that a bit like asking, “What makes humans valuable in the first place, if it’s not being made in the image of a divine being?” That, to me, does not speak of any belief in intrinsic worth, but rather a deep conviction - often too deep to even be acknowledged by the believer - that what we are not enough, that we are not worthwhile if we’re not somehow a part of a cosmic plan. And as I said earlier, the OP is really just a rehashing of the idea that human morality comes from God, not from humans.
From the context of metaphysical naturalism, we do not simply lose rational belief in God, but we should also lose rational belief in those moral significances which we imply when speaking of having “humanity” or “civilization”; words with meanings that we often use in-order to morally distinguish ourselves from mere animals that act on impulse as opposed to moral discernment. As an atheist you cannot rationally claim to have a “humanity” or “civility”, in the moral sense of those terms, since such things do not meaningfully exist in an objective sense; for there is no morality to discern.
When you behave as if you do have civility and humanity and dignity and all those special words we enjoy glamorizing ourselves with, we are acting irrationally in that we are not acting according to our true objective nature or in respect of how things truly are. Its make-belief. A rational person acts and thinks consistently with the objective nature of things. For example, a rational person does not cry when a tree gets chopped down in-order to build a house, because they can see that a tree has no value accept in reference to its
utility. If you are an atheist, then you should have no problem seeing people and treating people as tools or even weapons, for there is no rational way to view objects except in reference to their
utility. They are
objects like any other
objects. An honest atheist who wants to be consistent with the objective consequences of his or her belief system is a
nihilist in practice and thought. But i have never met an atheist that isn’t a hypocrite, and I am glad, for I will weep the day i meet a true nihilist. I could have become one myself, but i refuse to lose my humanity and my dignity. The things is, I believed in humanity and dignity even when i was an atheist. And when i came to realize that i would lose the reality of those things in the absence of God, this is when i realized that my personal nature was not intrinsically compatible with atheism. So now i believe and place my hope in God because i value moral truth.
The point is, whether you think objective moral value comes from God or not, the fact remains that it does not come from humans, and to speak of any being as having value is either to speak of their usefulness as a
tool(
utility), or it is to knowingly participate in a fantasy in-order to comfort ones being in the face of a brutal truth.
Which is it that you do Sair? Or are you willing to put your faith in God?
My brother and sisters, say it with me…
“
My belief in God is quite literally a revolt, a personal and moral revolution against any ideology hopeless enough to assert that the objective meaning of my existence amounts to nothing more than a secretion of chemicals.”
