Yet if there were no God or the human species stopped believing there was one then our entire moral underpinnings would be thrown out the window and an anything goes attitude would sweep the world.
Come to think of it,we almost HAVE that philosophy in many quarters today.I know for me if I didn't believe in God's greater plan and that I am here for a wondeful and fulfilling purpose then I would probably say"to hell with any morality"and eat all the junk food,smoke all the dope and screw all the women I could.Just a total hedonism trip.Why not if theres nothing beyond the mortal world?
I think we are hardwired to believe in God BY God.All cultures from time immemorial have believed in a higher power and an afterlife.So I really think that our life down here is a mere boot camp for the evolution of our soul.
"Yet if there were no God or the human species stopped believing there was one then our entire moral underpinnings would be thrown out the window and an anything goes attitude would sweep the world.
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That's an interesting argument, but it doesn't really hold up. The concept of a deity is something that every culture seems to have reinvented. All are different in many ways, yet all are the "source" of that culture's morality and ethics.
Since there are, and have been, so many of these deities, which one is the correct one? The answer is that it is whichever one is the dominant deity of your own culture.
Human beings live in societal groups. For such groups to work, there must be rules. It's easiest to assign such rules to a deity and threaten the breakers of the rules with some sort of punishment from the deity or deities. That way, the rules are externalized and nobody in the society needs to take responsibility for them.
Oddly enough, the basic set of moral values are pretty much the same in all societies. One must worship the deity of that society. One may not murder members of that society. One must respect the sexual mores of that society. One must respect the property of other members of that society.
Pretty basic stuff, shared by virtually every society.
I have to agree.
I think th reason Proverbs says that a fool says in his heart there is no God, is because he has put the opposite knowledge into us inheritly. Denying what exists inside of us and is not going away is foolish.