Atheist friend
During a discussion with my atheist friend, I argued that there is no morality without God.
He claimed that morality is something that developed evolutionarily and that the following process actually occurred:
The person who had a different morality – for example: wanted to murder, rape, etc. was removed from the society with the correct morality and then evolutionarily every other (bad) morality became extinct… and only good morality remained and that is how it was created. I would like the rabbi to please expand and explain the issue and if the friend’s claim is correct or incorrect…?
Both claims can be true. They are consistent. But we need to understand that if morality has evolved, there is nothing obligatory about it. I do it because I feel like it, not because I have to. There is no such thing as "have to." Therefore, the question is not how to interpret morality but how to interpret conscience as a psychological phenomenon. According to him, there is no morality, only a moral impulse. It is not fundamentally different from the impulse to speak ill of others. You can decide whether you go along with it or not, but there is no good or bad or right or wrong here. Of course, you also cannot judge someone else who does not do it. You feel like acting this way, even if you don't.
Anyone who is willing to accept such a picture (according to which there is no valid morality) can remain an atheist. As long as he understands what it means. See column 456 and the discussions following it.
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