Whether Secularism Implies Moral Subjectivism

An ongoing debate:

Dennis Prager writes

The intellectual class and the Left still believe that
secularism is an unalloyed blessing. They are wrong. Secularism is
good for government. But it is terrible for society (though still
preferable to bad religion) and for the individual.

One key reason is what secularism does to moral standards. If moral
standards are not rooted in God, they do not objectively exist. Good
and evil are no more real than “yummy” and “yucky.” They are simply a
matter of personal preference. One of the foremost liberal
philosophers, Richard Rorty, an atheist, acknowledged that for the
secular liberal, “There is no answer to the question, ‘Why not be
cruel?’”

A reader named David Ellis writes

“One key reason is what secularism does to moral
standards. If moral standards are not rooted in God, they do not
objectively exist.”

I’ve yet to see a good argument for this claim.

I propose the following arguments:

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Published on September 26, 2011 18:02
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