Troy Jollimore – Godless but good

Troy Jollimore – Godless but good
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/world-views/troy-jollimore-secular-ethics/

If there isn't already objective morality in the world, it isn't at all clear how adding God to the picture would bring such a morality into existence. Adding God would give us divine rewards and punishments, but that's only to add self-interested reasons to be ethical, not genuinely moral reasons. Similarly, adding God gives us a divine observer who can disapprove of murder and other wrong actions; but unless these actions are already morally wrong, it's not at all apparent how God's existence would magically transform them from permissible to forbidden. The idea that murdering innocent people is perfectly fine unless there is a God and he disapproves is not only deeply implausible, but positively immoral in its own right. To think such a thing is, in my view, a kind of moral failing in itself.

(via Instapaper)