Atheism and Ethical Systems are Contradictory
The gulf between various kinds of atheism and moral or ethical systems is both deep and dire. Yet still there are plenty of modern materialistic atheists who insist upon a moral code. But given their atheism, it amounts to little more than special pleading for their own particular preferences.
The reality is that atheism is unable to sustain any ethical or moral system apart from its own biases or prejudices. Philospher John Gray hits the nail on its head:
With few exceptions, twenty-first-century atheists are unthinking liberals. But atheism has no specific political content, and many atheists have been virulently anti-liberal. Eighteenth-century French philosophes--including Voltaire--endorsed views that can only be described as racist. . . . Typically, exponents of 'scientific ethics' have merely endorsed the conventional values of their time.
Our time is no different. The American new atheist, Sam Harris wants a 'science of good and evil'. He assumes that this science will support liberal values of human equality and personal autonomy. What is should do so is never explained. [John Gray, Seven Types of Atheism (London: Allen Lane, 2018), p. 21.]
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