Saturday, January 8, 2011

Second reply to Jason

I responded to Jason again over here but I'm also posting it below. I continue to maintain that although the atheist may want to say that pedophilia is wrong, his atheism actually provides the basis for allowing pedophilia:

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Jason wrote: “You have a logical fallacy in suggesting that morals that are subjective are self-defeating because one doesn’t have to accept that fact. I’m not saying that FACTS are SUBjective, or that all sociological concepts are OBjective. I’m saying that facts are OBJECTIVE — they are either facts or they are not, independent of what we would wish them to be — and that sociological concepts like morals are subjective, because they depend on the society they came from.”

Hi Jason. Thanks for clarifying your position. I hope our discussion is mutually beneficial. But if we were debating this in a Tim Horton’s, I would offer to buy you the next coffee since I believe you need some more time to think through the logical consequences of your position.

You said that morality is subjective yet you say that facts are objective. But consider the following claim: “Pedophilia is morally wrong.” According to you, is this a fact, or is this a subjective opinion? Please take some time to consider your answer while enjoying the coffee I just bought for you.

To put it another way, Jason, do people have an objective moral obligation to believe that morality is subjective? Or, do people have an objective moral obligation to believe the facts?

Also, you write: “… sociological concepts like morals are subjective, because they depend on the society they came from.” But from what society does this claim itself come from? If this claim came from one society but not another, am I morally obligated to believe this claim? If there was a society that believed pedophilia was right, would that society be wrong? Does the rightness or wrongness of pedophilia depend on the society it comes from? Really?

The Christian position is that pedophilia is morally wrong for any person in any place at any time. Pedophilia is wrong regardless of the society you come from, regardless of your subjective opinion on the matter. But since the atheist can’t account for universal and invariant laws of morality, he’s left with the absurd position of saying that pedophilia is morally wrong on the one hand and saying that morality is subjective on the other hand. Thus, the atheist position gives the pedophile the loophole he needs to justify pedophilia, since he can appeal to the atheist position that moral claims concerning pedophilia are just a matter of subjective opinion and can’t be said to be objectively binding.

The next coffee is on you.

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