The author of the linked post intended, and failed, to show that atheism is not compatible with truth or to argue that atheists have a problem with truth. I argue, without fear of contradiction, that s/he has not proved their case. They didn’t even get off. We cannot, from reading their blog determine what truth is and how its existence is proof for god or an argument against atheism.
I will state, following Odera Oruka that all truths are contextual, where context is a tradition that determines the levels of understanding and the rules of rationality. Within a context, objectivity is implied and therefore, to argue that truth is contextual is not to commit to relativism.
After failing to make a coherent argument for truth as demonstrating that the Christian god exists, our interlocutor moves to morality and attempts to kill the horse that has been killed so many times there is no death left in it- is morality objective or subjective?- in their own words
What about claims that morality is relative? Someone may say one behaviour is acceptable and another not. If there is no God, then all our morals are a matter of personal opinion and not objective.
And as I have said of truth, codes of behaviour are context specific. And within a given context, whatever norms or codes that people live by are considered, they will be objective.
Our interlocutor then writes
If there is no God, then all our morals are a matter of personal opinion and not objective.
as if transferring the source of the opinion improves objectivity. Where gods have been claimed to have spoken, they have not been clear. Is it bad to kill? Not if they worship a different god. Or if it is as a sacrifice to a god. So that, if we are to follow the precepts laid down in the bible (our interlocutor argues for Christianity), we would not be certain on how to act.
We are told
However, if there is a God, and that God has defined right and wrong moral behaviour, then we have a standard outside of ourselves providing us with an objective standard for morality. If God does exist then we can have real objective moral truths.
and I ask which are these? Don’t eat shellfish? Take for example the command don’t kill. Why should we not kill? Because god has said. This, I argue, is unhelpful. It takes us to WLC philosophy of divine command theory where everything that god says is right. I am not sure Euthyphro’s dilemma has been successfully answered.
Most times when I read blogs by Christian apologists, I am left wondering why do they live in such small worlds. When a person writes
The Atheist must borrow the Christian worldview, to hold onto objective moral truths, but at the same time they want to reject the foundation for moral truth.
i ask is the world divided only between Christian and atheist? From whose world view does the atheist in Buddhaland borrow from?
If 1+1=2, the existence of god adds nothing to this. It is independent of gods. I don’t see how empirical facts help with the argument for existence of gods. Unless the apologist is able to demonstrate that the existence of god will change the value of 1+1, then using it as an argument to demonstrate the existence of god fails, unless I am missing something.
All ‘truths’ are contextual! Yes, and in a multivariable world, the context is always personal and limited to our own experiences, whether a priori, or a posteriori.
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This paragraph summarises the whole of my blog post
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This atheist does have trouble with truth. ;(
I confess to telling a few little lies every once in awhile. And they aren’t always white.
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Hahahaha.
Grey lies are acceptable. Black or white nope
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as usual, the Christian is selfish greedy and arrogant with their lies about how great they are.
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This christian believes you have no way of guiding your life without borrowing from his
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I may have trouble with the truth, but I’ve no trouble coming up with recipes for Christian baby stew!!!! DEEEELICIOUS!!
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This, in truth, is a good thing
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Truth is I’ve lost all desire to engage in debates about the truth. And that’s an objective fact!
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You were destined at the beginning of time by the fundamental laws of physics to come to this conclusion, Ron!
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Haha, Brian.
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Truth is, most debates on truth are not worth having. That too, is an objective fact.
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the sad truth is anything that contains truth has a fragment of lies in it, if you dont believe in God who gives a damn but why should onhe try convince the other the non existance of God and we are all born in religion we didn.t choosebecausew we lacked consent since youngings https://zero364.com/2020/02/04/on-the-notion-of-god/
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What’s your problem? If someone reads my blog and is convinced they have been mistaken until now, where is the issue?
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The issue is Christians know THE truth, and anyone who questions THE truth hurts their feefees.
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They have the Truth. The whole Truth and nothing but Truth
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There is no problem in people reading blogs anyone can read as long as they went to school all am weary of is distortion and misinformation of the public by writers they can read your blog all they want but we have freedom to choose like i did while commenting here
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I don’t know what misinformation you would have in mind? I tell my readers we have no evidence of dead men walking, donkeys talking, worldwide floods or women turning into salt pillars. Which of these would you consider a distortion?
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I’m convinced that religious truth is an oxymoron. More moron than oxy!
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Haha.
Religious truths are those truths that are true on the context of a religion- like Muhammed flying a pegassus
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[…] Evidence for Christianity […]
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