Ethics and Atheism

In recent decades the attendance of traditional Christian churches in the US has been in decline. This has translated into an increase of those practicing (or at least identifying themselves as) Neo-pagans, Wiccans or several other varieties of spirituality. As spiritual practices with more or less defined, but always present, ethical and moral guidelines they can be dismissed from the concerns of this essay. This decline has also, however, translated itself into a growing population of those who identify themselves as atheists. In an increasingly secular age, taken at face value, atheism does not seem problematic. It can be argued that Science, History, Philosophy, Art, Literature and Music can all continue to be produced without any particular belief in God. The only place where atheism is problematic is in the arena of Ethics. Some popular perceptions or misperceptions are that atheists cannot be expected to act morally without the presence of divine mandates, that their ethics will be innately inferior to those of religious origin, and that the only morality left open to an atheist is moral relativism.

It is absurd to think that because someone is not required to act in a certain way due to divine mandate that it precludes them from acting morally. It is a stock either/or fallacy. It is just as absurd to assume that because someone professes to be of a given faith that they can be expected to act morally. If a person happens to be of a given faith they may be more inclined to trust the moral character of another member of their faith, but it is not, nor can it be, a given. In the everyday world, the origin of morality has little to do with our expectations of moral behavior. Our expectations of moral behavior are derived from our observations of moral behavior. We tend to trust those we see behaving morally and to distrust those we see (or have reason to believe are) behaving immorally or amorally. Moreover, our trust may be lesser or greater depending on the particular area of behavior under discussion. For example, a given man may be perfectly willing to let a lawyer that never violates attorney-client privilege, but also engages in affairs, represent him in a lawsuit without introducing the lawyer to his wife.

What drives this misperception stems from the categorical/hypothetical divide. Moral theory tends to be (with the exception of morally relativistic systems) defined by the categorical, or that which is universal. Moral actions are by nature hypothetical, or that which happens situationally. Moral imperatives, Christian or otherwise, tend to be very broad: don’t steal, don’t kill, and don’t lie, to name a few that appear in both religious and non-religious moral systems. While not true categorical imperatives, they’re as close as one can come without becoming vague to the point of irrelevancy. These rules are not contextual. They are meant to define behavior in all instances at all times. Moral behavior, on the other hand, is entirely contextual. Human fallibility in combination with stressors (be they personal or professional) will lead to failures to engage in the universal rules. Here’s the crux of the matter, because religious morality is divinely mandated (theoretically), those who accept it make the mistake of assuming that because the rules are divine and universal the behaviors they require will be equally universal, but any rule not both divine and universal will lead to suspect behavior. It is a conclusion that ignores the differentiation between the categorical and the hypothetical. Human beings act in the hypothetical and the rules are broken, whether they are divinely mandated or not. The assumption that those who lack divinely mandated rules are more prone to immoral behavior because of the lack of divine mandate is insupportable. Moral behavior occurs in context and so does moral failure, irregardless of the source of the rules. To assert that atheists are more prone to moral failure than those who embrace religious moral systems is at best an error and at worst an ugly prejudice.

It is equally spurious to assert that an atheist’s ethic is innately inferior to a divinely mandated ethic. Such claims find their source in an understandable, but nonetheless flawed, line of reasoning. It is a variant on the Cartesian Ontological Proof for God. The argument goes something like this:

1. God is perfect.

2. God has given mankind rules of conduct.

3. As God is perfect, the rules God has given to mankind are equally perfect.

The argument seems sound enough from a logical standpoint; unfortunately, the entire argument rests on three significant assumptions. The first assumption is that there is a God. The second assumption is that God is perfect. The final assumption, which actually hinges on accepting the first two, is that such a God is sufficiently interested in human beings to give us rules. If these assumptions are accepted as irrefutably true (which true believers do accept), then the arguments work. Nevertheless, to accept the first or all of these assumptions is an act of faith and not reason. There is no viable way to demonstrate the existence, nature, or actions of God. As such, there is no way to assert the superiority of divinely mandated moral systems, because such judgments rest on the believed, but ultimately non-demonstrable, nature of God’s perfection.

As to the notion that the only morality available to an atheist is moral relativism, there is nothing to support such a claim. The most significant principle in the various incarnations of moral relativism is that moral positions are, by nature, not absolute positions. As such, those professing contrary moral thinking cannot be condemned for their moral reasoning. Setting aside the numerous examples of how this perception of morality fails, how can an atheist avoid being or being labeled a moral relativist?

The simple answer is that being an atheist does not preclude moral absolutism. It simply isn’t divinely mandated moral absolutism. While the existence of God cannot be demonstrated to be a priori, there are principles which have been more or less accepted as a priori true: logical principles. How does one move from logic to morality? A very simple example would be the application of the law of identity and its corollary the law of non-contradiction. If we have a procedure for identifying, for example, a human being, then the law of identity dictates that a human being is a human being and the law of non-contradiction dictates that a human being cannot be other than a human being. Since most moral systems concern themselves primarily with human interaction, this is a fairly important place to begin.

Let’s say that our procedure for identifying a human being is a genetic examination. Anyone who has a genetic code within a certain tolerance qualifies for a status as a human being, irregardless of their racial heritage. In one fell swoop, an atheist who accepts the laws of identity and non-contradiction has eliminated all forms of racism, as any morality worth discussing will include all human beings beneath its umbrella and the genetic differences between the various racial groups on this planet are miniscule. Granted, this is a simplistic example and subject to certain criticisms, but it does demonstrate the possibility of establishing an absolute moral position without recourse to a non-demonstrable deity.

It is outside of the scope and purpose of this essay to follow the line of reasoning out to a full-blown moral theory. Nonetheless, it can be said that the assertions that atheists cannot be expected to act morally without divine mandate, that an atheist’s ethic is innately inferior, and that an atheist is condemned to moral relativism are untenable positions. An atheist is subject to the same moral quality and failure as a theist because they both have moral victories and defeats in the hypothetical. The inferiority of an atheist ethic is based on flawed logic or ill-considered suppositions. The possibility of an absolute morality without recourse to God is entirely conceivable. What is more interesting, and perhaps more worth the time and effort of exploration, would be just why it is that some of those who embrace a divinely mandated morality feel the need to try to undercut and denigrate the moral grounding of those who do not.