By the way, the problem with atheism is that there is no metaphysical basis for any finding of value whatsoever. One can come up with ethical precepts, starting from the point of man's observed nature, and using a concept like virtue as the moral equivalent of Health. Just as health is the body functioning well, so morality is the personality (and society) functioning well. However, none of it really matters, we are just automata, and what happens to us is nothing in the total scheme of things.
The most primitive religion is, from the standpoint of human values, preferable, insofar as it affirms that we are persons, self- aware and capable of choice, and that what happens to each of us does matter in a morally grounded cosmos.
The deep irony is that the adherence to truth, and insistence upon rigor of method, is itself a value, and equally futile in the total scheme of things as "thou shalt not commit adultery". Primitive religion may be a better bulwark against assaults on the meaningfulness of Truth than science could ever be.......... |
