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Gavin Ortlund responds to Jon Stewart’s reflections on belief and explores why the problem of evil raises even harder questions for atheism than for theism.
121 sats \ 5 replies \ @freetx 4 Dec
evil raises even harder questions for atheism

Its very true. Not exactly a great example of it.... but I have a work colleague / friend who is both an adamant atheist and a outspoken vegan (on ethical grounds).

I've tried to gently probe him to see if he sees the incongruity, but he claims its perfectly reasonable to hold both beliefs.

Now, I am all for treating animals ethically. But I just cant understand if we are all just random atoms bouncing around, why does it matter what a chicken feels....

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Atheists, like everyone else, have preferences for how the world should be.

Disliking suffering and wanting less of it shouldn’t be hard to understand.

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no one is truly an atheist. at most, you get people whose God is their own thoughts.

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Yeah. Or someone or some idea. We create our own gods. We create our own idols but usually it's looking at us in the mirror.

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Yeah... we humans are full of hypocrisy. Athiest and Christian alike. There are reasons for morality outside of a belief in a God but it is hard for me to see this in humans consuming what they have consumed naturally for many thousands of years.

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Humans also engaged in slavery for many thousands of years, as well as war and any number of moral abominations.

Doing something for a long time is not any sort of evidence that it’s ethical.

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