A review by jmanchester0
Morality Without God? by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
3.0
It was a short book but a slow read. I don't know if it's because he was preaching to the choir or if I thought his writing style was slow.
"...the Bible cannot provide a solid foundation for morality or for knowledge of morality."
This is what I'm wrestling with right now.
I have argued for a long time that the Bible is not a book to give us a list of moral rules. In fact, though I believe in God, I would agree with the author's harm-based morality.
Reading this book makes you realize how arbitrary people truly are with their morality. Especially religious people. How many religious people state their morality is based on God's commands, yet do all kinds of inference to preach against things that God never explicitly commanded against (e.g., abortion and gay marriage). And since no two groups of fundamentalists can agree on the specific rules, it ends up being completely arbitrary. If Christians can't agree on morality then which one has the right to impose to impose his (or hers)?
"...the Bible cannot provide a solid foundation for morality or for knowledge of morality."
This is what I'm wrestling with right now.
I have argued for a long time that the Bible is not a book to give us a list of moral rules. In fact, though I believe in God, I would agree with the author's harm-based morality.
Reading this book makes you realize how arbitrary people truly are with their morality. Especially religious people. How many religious people state their morality is based on God's commands, yet do all kinds of inference to preach against things that God never explicitly commanded against (e.g., abortion and gay marriage). And since no two groups of fundamentalists can agree on the specific rules, it ends up being completely arbitrary. If Christians can't agree on morality then which one has the right to impose to impose his (or hers)?