The Philosophy Café

The Philosophy Café at Harvard Book Store is a monthly gathering meant for the informal, relaxed, philosophical discussion of topics of mutual interest to participants. No particular expertise is required to participate, only a desire to explore philosophy and its real-world applications. More information can be found at www.philocafe.org.

The Philosophy Café is held on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:30 in the Used Book department on the lower level of Harvard Book Store.

This month:

Is Atheism Just a Value Judgment?

The purpose of our June discussion (to which everyone, whether atheist, theist, agnostic or otherwise affiliated will be welcome) is to gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical motivations for atheism, rather than deciding for or against it.  While it is generally admitted that it is impossible to prove God’s (or any other logically possible entity’s) non existence, some atheists, including Richard Dawkins, attempt to establish that God’s existence is so improbable that it can be safely dismissed. However, such attempts assume that we can evaluate probabilities concerning a Divine Substance.  The only way to do so seems to be extrapolating from natural scientific insights; arguably, this begs the question.  What if atheism is based not on “objective” arguments of this kind but on some kind of value commitment?  What kind of values might be invoked to sustain atheism, and what philosophical force would they have?  The following paragraphs outline two possible value judgments through which one could attempt to justify atheism.

Some atheists seem to argue that theist discourse is inherently defective; that explanations in terms of divine entities can be assumed not really to explain anything.  (This is backed up by the claim that God is an inherently magical/mystical concept, and that good explanations eschew mystery.)  Some atheists, with a scientific bent believe that theist thinking inevitably has magical/mystical features and that those very features alone render it illegitimate.  Whether valid or not, such an argument is a value judgment about the way we should talk and think.  We shall discuss whether such a value judgment can be justified.

Another atheist strategy is to argue that an atheist sensibility is necessary to claim our full humanity.  For Sartre, for example, freedom to establish our moral values lies at the heart of what it is to be human.  (This emphasis on freedom is often seen as being incompatible with the “scientism” that motivates many atheists.  Actually, Sartre thought that determinism, which he associated with scientism, was as bad as theism!) Theism, Sartre claimed, would deny us ethical Freedom, since it identifies God as the Creator of moral facts and, according to Sartre, makes human beings products of His activity.  If Sartre is right that a) true autonomy in moral decision making is a prerequisite for being an ethical being and b) that the existence of God would make such autonomy impossible, then atheism is a prerequisite for being truly ethical!  An interesting point of comparison is with the Christian perspective of “Situational Ethics.”  Situational ethics advocates, such as Joseph Fletcher, agree with Sartreans that being ethical does not involve following  pre-given rules; they claim that ethical action is that which is based on Love.  The twist comes with Fletcher’s claim that Love is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and that anyone who acts according to Love is moved by the Holy Spirit even if they are committed atheists! Fletcher would claim that Sartrean ethics fail due to an essential relativism, while Sartre would claim that reliance on the Holy Spirit would render ethical thinking moot due to its rejection of human freedom.

Readings:

Richard Dawkins’s argument against the Existence of God:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-dawkins/why-there-almost-certainl_b_32164.html

A Response:

http://www.saintsandsceptics.org/theres-probably-no-god-a-response-to-richard-dawkins/

A summary of Sartre’s Views:

http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/7e.htm