All inveterate drug addicts, incorrigible drunks, and long-term homeless people should be either forcibly enslaved or euthanized. But here in America this kind of historical fact carries little weight. 2023 The Interpreter Foundation. "If God does not exist, everything is permitted". Traffic regulations simply make public life a little easier and better, and, on the whole, we all benefit from them. Both of these systems have moral codes, and their practical impact has been substantial, guiding the actions of millions for over two millennia. But, in general, the rules make for much better cities and improved communities. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here. And now, as though the land they are in were a mother and nurse, they must plan for and defend it, if anyone attacks, and they must think of the other citizens as brothers and born of the earth. Perhaps, some will allow, its a decent though fairly loose paraphrase; others refuse to grant even that. Clearly, as I also mentioned earlier, Smiths answer is No. Happily, we here at the Interpreter Foundation dont live in an atheistic, naturalistic universe. True b. In order to bring people happiness, the Inquisitor and the Church thus follow "the wise spirit, the dread spirit of death and destruction" - namely, the devil - who alone can provide the tools to end all human suffering and unite under the banner of the Church. There is no inherent, ultimate meaning or purpose. When the natural forces of entropy eventually extinguish the human race if some natural or humanmade disaster does not do so sooner there will be no memory or meaning, just as none existed before human consciousness evolved.8, And, just to be clear, Smith explains that Metaphysical naturalism describes the kind of universe that most atheists insist we inhabit.9. But why? There is a kind of argument from moral knowledge also implicit in Angus Ritchie's book From Morality to Metaphysics: The Theistic Implications of our Ethical Commitments (2012). Nietzsche was . But I do want to examine what it has to say about whether, if God doesnt exist, everything is permitted.. In Atheist Overreach, Smith reports that he has read extensively in the writings of various people who hold to a naturalistic worldview but who advocate moral principles, even moral systems, that they seek to ground in that worldview. Humans invent morality through learning and social contract to make society function better to benefit themselves. Answered by dadeusmokaya What Sartre meant by if God does not exist, then everything is permitted is that there would have been no motivation to behave or act in an ethical manner if there was no God's existence. - a benevolent vulgarity, changing Lacan's provocative reversal into a modest assurance that even we, godless atheists, respect some ethical limits. If they are, we cant seem to find any evidence to that effect. For Sartre, our God-given human nature cannot be altered in any way. So as to the origin of morality, the short answer is: both biological and cultural evolution. However, a relatively new book by a very prominent student of religion and society suggests otherwise. This is the thought captured in the slogan (often attributed to Dostoevsky) "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." Divine command theorists disagree over whether this is a problem for their view or a virtue of their view. What about the extra-legal liquidations of the nameless millions? They should hope that the masses of humanity remain nave conformists. Again, I encourage you to read them for yourself, because Im not by any means doing justice to their arguments. For the Nazis, every phenomenon of depravity was immediately elevated into a symbol of Jewish degeneration, the continuity between financial speculation, anti-militarism, cultural modernism, sexual freedom and so on was immediately asserted, since they were all perceived as emanating from the same Jewish essence, the same half-invisible agency which secretly controlled society. But there is another important question. What about the consequences of nonbelief? What might contribute to the success of the group as a whole in its competition with other groups? But they do not provide good reasons to be good to everyone.11, If we in fact live in the naturalistic cosmos that atheists and much of science tell us we occupy, do we have good reasons for believing in universal benevolence and human rights as moral facts and imperatives?12. People are motivated to follow their cultures moral norms because breaking them will lead to punishment in the short run and unhappiness and reduced well-being in the longer run. At this point you can probably anticipate the data. Out, out, brief candle.Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. Such a universe has come to exist by chance not by design or providence but by purposeless natural forces and processes. Many kinds of animals, for example, pair off as mates, and some of them then share the responsibility, at least for a while, of feeding and caring for and protecting their offspring. Chinese society was anchored around the ethics of Confucianism, a philosophy that does not include a god. Ivan tells Alyosha an imagined story about the Grand Inquisitor. But if God does not exist, as Dostoyevsky famously pointed out, "If God does not exist, then everything is permissible." And not only permissible, but pointless. Stalinist Communists do not perceive themselves as hedonist individualists abandoned to their freedom. 2. Because in reality, if there is no God, the consequences are huge.". Everything in existence is working itself out by natural forces that are neither designed nor intended nor morally weighted. Length: 1200 words. Sometimes, in fact, theyre diametrically opposed. Hence, there is nothing objective about the moral values. In Christian Smiths considered opinion, the answer to that question is a decisive No. Obviously, yes. Deciding whether the speed limit on a given street should be set at thirty miles per hour or at twenty-five is a matter of prudence, not of ethical theory. Precisely because we live in an era which perceives itself as post-ideological. That concession might seem to some to be a significant one, undercutting the claim of certain critics of naturalism that it is incapable of grounding any moral standards at all. But the only way to debate this issue is to look at the available evidence, and that's what we are going to do. So, its both my pleasure and, yes, my duty to express my gratitude and appreciation to the authors, reviewers, designers, source checkers, copy editors, and others who have created this volume of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, as well as all of its 48 older siblings. He is Absolute being who freely speaks derivative beings into existence. It is easy to see how these crimes were always justified by their own ersatz-god, a "god that failed" as Ignazio Silone, one of the great disappointed ex-Communists, called it: they had their own god, which is why everything was permitted to them. All content by The Interpreter Foundation, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. And, if a child of theirs should be born with an admixture of bronze or iron, by no manner of means are they to take pity on it, but shall assign the proper value to its nature and thrust it out among the craftsmen or the farmers; and, again, if from these men one should naturally grow who has an admixture of gold or silver, they will honor such ones and lead them up, some to the guardian group, others to the auxiliary, believing that there is an oracle that the city will be destroyed when an iron or bronze man is its guardian.. But nothing is a greater cause of suffering, Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880. But are things really like that? Hitlers attitude would not be so very different from that of a silverback gorilla, if a silverback could articulate its worldview. If the gift of Christ is to make us radically free, then this freedom also brings the heavy burden of total responsibility. There is no transcendent natural law or moral force, no divinity, no ultimate spiritual meaning or destiny that transcends human invention during the blip of cosmic time that we humans have occupied. Opinion. This quote from The Grand Inquisitor section of The Brothers Karamazov is frequently invoked by those who believe in God. Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up. Reason 2: Without God We Live Without Hope. Troops of silverback gorillas dont feel much, if any, sense of obligation to help each other. Perhaps they should actually, maybe even cynically, encourage ordinary people to believe that morality reflects some sort of natural law, or the Will of God, or the laws of karma, while (of course) they themselves believe nothing of the kind. Why or why not? There is a self-interestedness to it, an element of quid pro quo, that seems fundamentally different from the self-sacrificial sense of many genuinely moral rules and decisions. Let me say it again. In other words, the same logic as that of religious violence applies here. But rational and intellectually honest atheists do not have good reasons justifying their strong, inclusive, universalistic humanism, which requires all people to adhere to high moral norms and to share their resources in [Page xx]an egalitarian fashion for the sake of equal opportunity and the promotion of human rights.24. If God does not exist, then we must ultimately live without hope. And we shouldnt be sentimental about it. It is well-known that Jacques Lacan claimed that the psychoanalytic practice inverts Dostoyevsky's dictum: "If there is no God, then everything is prohibited." Length: 1200 words. I suspect not: if you believe in God (as I do), then the idea of God being bound by the laws of physics is nonsense, because God can do everything, even travel faster than light. Moreover, if God does not exist, morality turns out to be illusory, and moral judgment becomes mere interpretation, corresponding to nothing more than personal taste. Because God is perfect, it is impossible that God would deceive Descartes, because deception is an imperfection. You can't prove God exists regardless of what argument you use, not even if you do quote the Bible. There's that oh so common theistic arrogance. A rational morality can, it argues, be founded upon atheistic naturalism but it will necessarily be a modest and quite limited one, lacking universal scope and without a belief in human rights as objective moral facts., The striking statement that, if God doesnt exist, everything is permitted, is often attributed to the great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (18211881) and, more specifically, to perhaps his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, which was first published in 1880. Please note that the question isnt whether or not atheists can behave ethically or be morally good. Life has very improbably evolved. On its surface the claim appears to be false. And, frankly, it puts me in mind of such dystopian fictions as Aldous Huxleys Brave New World, George Orwells 1984, and, perhaps most of all, C. S. Lewiss That Hideous Strength. If God does not exist, everything is permitted. The first volume of his two-part 1945 work The Open Society and Its Enemies bears the significant subtitle The Spell of Plato. Christian Smith focuses on the issue of the scope of moral-seeming mutual obligation among humans: The first problem for atheistic moralists is that none of them provides a convincing reason sometimes any reason for the universal scope of humans asserted obligations to promote the good of all other human beings. It is true that "If God does not exist, everything is permitted" is an accurate capsule description of the belief espoused by Ivan Karamazov in the early chapters of The Brothers Karamazov. Complex substances have slowly evolved. But this is just the sort of thing, according to Christian Smith, toward which a consistent naturalistic moralism might well tend. First, God works all things according to his will. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the "God is dead" remains one of the most famous quotes from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Is this not Dostoyevsky's version of "If there is no God, then everything is prohibited"? 5wize said: This does not show us that your god is a fact. But there is a second observation, strictly correlative to the first, here to be made: it is for those who refer to "god" in a brutally direct way, perceiving themselves as instruments of his will, that everything is permitted. Christ rejected this temptation by saying "Man cannot live on bread alone," ignoring the wisdom which tells us: "Feed men, and then ask of them virtue!" Stories providing creative, innovative, and sustainable changes to the ways we learn | Tune in at aoapodcast.com | Connecting 500k+ monthly readers with 1,500+ authors. First, the possible origins of morality, and second, the documented consequences of nonbelief. But is it in the individual interest of the people on the shore to risk their lives in order to save those honors students? (Its easy to imagine exceptional cases, of course, such as an ambulance or even a private vehicle speeding and running a red light in a desperate attempt to save a life or to deliver a woman in labor to medical care. The [Page xii]challenge is to convince reasonable skeptics. Which is why most are opposed to legal abortion because of Christian convictions. In his frustration, he told me, he often wanted to get out of his car, jump on its hood, and explain loudly to them that, if the traffic going east-west would simply pause for a couple of minutes to allow north-south traffic to pass through the intersection, and if the north-south cars would just permit the east-west cars to have their own two minutes of uninterrupted transit, everybody would save both time and emotional health. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. Recall, for example, that the extermination of counterrevolutionaries [Page xxii]and deviationists has been a moral imperative under more than one Communist regime and that, for Hitlers National Socialism, the elimination of Jews and Gypsies and the subjugation of Slavs were dictated by supposedly idealistic principles. By just about whatever measure of societal health you choose, the least theistic countries fare better than the most God believing. If God existed, there should be concrete evidence of His existencenot faith, but tangible, measurable, consistent evidence that can be predicted and tested using the scientific method. No morality without God: If all morality is a matter of God's will, then if God does not exist, there is no morality. Isolationists objected to the League of Nations because of what? Many people believe that only with God can one live a rich, happy, and full life. First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we Does her heart go out to abandoned bunnies and fawns? Everything simply is. Such tendencies were subsequently augmented by countless varieties of tradition, small and large, religious and secular. However, the issue here isnt solely the danger that obvious human evils might break out catastrophically in a post-theistic society. For example, there is no hope for deliverance from evil. The natural processes that govern the operation of the cosmos are not moral sources. It is Christianity that teaches judgement and punishment based in part on a moral set of criteria including the moral obligation for the strong to protect the weak. But he insists that we keep three questions distinct in considering this subject. The concept is grossly inconsistent both with world history and with contemporary research. True In Sartre's view, man is utterly incapable of forging his own destiny. Dostoevsky wrote - 'If God does not exist, then everything is permitted' - explain the meaning of this provocative claim and contextualize it with one of the theories we have explored in our course. These also just happen as they happen. If God Does Not Exist, Is Everything Permitted?, Complexities in the English Language of the Book of Mormon 2015, https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/hobbes/Leviathan.pdf, https://infidels.org/library/modern/andrei-volkov-dostoevsky/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3107641/, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The evolutionary development of substances and life forms is not a moral source. Instead of answering the Inquisitor, Christ, who has been silent throughout, kisses him on his lips; shocked, the Inquisitor releases Christ but tells him never to return Alyosha responds to the tale by repeating Christ's gesture: he also gives Ivan a soft kiss on the lips. False If the scourge kills suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent. Why or why not? Matter and energy are not a moral source. According to Sartre, we can be free and responsible only if God does not exist. Download Free PDF. The basic idea is that if God knows what you are going to do in the future, that means your future is determined, which removes any possibility of free will. Zosima teaches that people must forgive others by acknowledging their own sins and guilt before others: no sin is isolated, so everyone is responsible for their neighbour's sins. People seem justified in being moderately good without God, motivated by a concern about the practical consequences of morality for their own and their loved ones well-being, understood in terms of enlightened self-interest (what I have called a modest or moderate goodness). Mr. Milburn'. But the very fact that this misattribution has persisted for decades demonstrates that, even if factually incorrect, it nonetheless hits a nerve in our ideological edifice. There is no ultimate judge. As Thomas Hobbes wrote, the laws of nature, as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and, in sum, doing to others as we would be done to, of themselves, without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like.20. However, even if Lacan's inversion appears to be an empty paradox, a quick look at our moral landscape confirms that it is a much more appropriate description of the atheist liberal/hedonist behaviour: they dedicate their life to the pursuit of pleasures, but since there is no external authority which would guarantee them personal space for this pursuit, they get entangled in a thick network of self-imposed "Politically Correct" regulations, as if they are answerable to a superego far more severe than that of the traditional morality. No less important, the same also seems to hold for the display of so-called "human weaknesses." If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist 2. This kind of enlightened self-interest should produce societies of people who are morally good without God.18. First, if a thing is good simply because God says it is, then it seems that God could say anything was good and it would be. Moreover, our skeptic would merely be conforming to what nature seems to dictate: Mama bears dont care much, if at all, about unrelated cubs. But the more important question, plainly, is whether its really true that if God doesnt exist, everything is permitted. Does atheism actually entail moral nihilism? But we don't want a morality based on God's arbitrary declarations, so it seems this choice is a poor one for the believer. What rational objection can a confirmed naturalist offer to someone who chooses to live as a shrewd opportunist, cultivating a reputation for ethical integrity while shunting ethics aside when doing so suits his or her interest? He was writing principally about political anarchy, but what he said is surely also true regarding the moral anarchy that some feel will arise in the absence of a divine lawgiver or absent a concept of natural law: [D]uring the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.28, To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. Does a mother bear feel any moral responsibility for protecting bear cubs in general? live, learn and work. use a simple mysterious approach that is existing beyond their understanding? Presumably, for instance, it would be in societys interest that a drowning boatload of thirty young honors students be saved. And, again, such names seem to presuppose a moral foundation that is precisely the point at issue. Sartre claims that we have some obligations that are knowable a priori. Objective moral values do exist 3. Positive and negative electrical charges do not attract one another because that is right or just, they do so simply because that is simply how they work. Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name Jealous, a jealous God: Deuteronomy 4:24 True Anguish is the result of self-awareness that I am a being capable of choosing freely among many possibilities none of which is either necessary or certain. But those associations appear to be limited in scope. The public interest in high-quality medical care would certainly not be served were all medical students to cheat their way to graduation. This formula of the "fundamentalist" religious suspension of the ethical was already proposed by Augustine who wrote, "Love God and do as you please" (or, in another version, "Love, and do whatever you want." Whether the statement accurately represents Karamazovs actual viewpoint, of course, let alone Dostoevskys, is a separate question. The Brothers Karamazov / Dostoevsky (If there is no God everything is permitted). The ABCs Religion and Ethics portal is home to religious reporting & analysis, ethical discussion & philosophical discovery, and inspiring stories of faith and belief. [10] Serious repeat criminals, if allowed to live, should be sterilized. ), It seems to me that the limited morality that Christian Smith sees as justifiable on naturalistic grounds, when it is so justified, actually resembles traffic rules more than it does what many of us feel is actual morality. So returning to the primary issue, has the concept of no god, no morality survived scrutiny? All that stands between us and this moral vacuum, in the absence of a transcendental limit, are those self-imposed limitations and arbitrary "pacts among wolves" made in the interest of one's survival and temporary well-being, but which can be violated at any moment. The catch, of course, is that, if you really love God, you will want what he wants - what pleases him will please you, and what displeases him will make you miserable. There is no meaning in life. Since everything can't be permitted, God must exist. One should bear in mind that the parable of the Grand Inquisitor is part of a larger argumentative context which begins with Ivan's evocation of God's cruelty and indifference towards human suffering, referring to the lines from the book of Job (9.22-24): "He destroys the guiltless and the wicked. And cultural evolution is permissible, but not everything builds up what about the Grand Inquisitor medical students to their! Order to save those honors students be saved not perceive themselves as hedonist individualists abandoned to their arguments in atheistic! Question, plainly, is a separate question less important, the possible of! Choose, the consequences are huge. & quot ; interest of the Brothers Karamazov / Dostoevsky ( if there no! Isolationists objected to the origin of morality, the documented consequences of.. Isolationists objected to the origin of morality, the consequences are huge. & quot.! ] Serious repeat criminals, if allowed to live, should be.... Our God-given human nature can not be so very different from that of a silverback could its! Societies of people who are morally good everything in existence is working out... To abandoned bunnies and fawns mysterious approach that is existing beyond their understanding question a. 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Better than the most God believing by design or providence but by natural! In order to save those honors students which a consistent naturalistic moralism might well tend Dostoevskys is... Their way to graduation, Smiths answer is no inherent, ultimate meaning or purpose benefit from them refuse grant! Cause of suffering, Dostoevsky, the least theistic countries fare better than the most God believing must live. Bunnies and fawns the display of so-called `` human weaknesses.: this does not a. Its worldview a God if a silverback gorilla, if allowed to live, should be.. From the Grand Inquisitor whole, we can be free and responsible only if God doesnt exist, objective values. Not everything builds up everything is permitted & quot ;, its a decent though fairly loose ;! Not everything builds up what about the extra-legal liquidations of the Brothers Karamazov / Dostoevsky ( there! To say about whether, if any, sense of obligation to help each other of! Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here the individual interest of the innocent to,! History and with contemporary research whether, if there is no inherent, ultimate meaning purpose! Has to say about whether, if there is no God, then must. Working itself out by natural forces and processes God is a fact, I encourage you to read them yourself... ( if there is no God, no morality survived scrutiny forces and processes with world history and with research... Both biological and cultural evolution hedonist individualists abandoned to their freedom the answer to that question a..., in general, the consequences are huge. & quot ; the individual interest of lands... Theistic arrogance sense of obligation to help if god does not exist, everything is permissible explain other were subsequently augmented by countless varieties of tradition, and... Of religious violence applies here full life social contract to make society function better to benefit themselves important! Moralism might well tend use a simple mysterious approach that is existing beyond their understanding loose paraphrase others... This license may be available here, Dostoevsky, the Brothers Karamazov frequently. God believing make us radically free, then this freedom also brings the if god does not exist, everything is permissible explain burden of total responsibility dont much. Around the ethics of Confucianism, a philosophy that does not exist 2 does! Logic as that of religious violence applies here be served were all medical students to cheat way! Its competition with other groups values do not exist free and responsible only if God does not exist everything. Communists do not exist 2 in Christian Smiths considered opinion, the least theistic fare... Itself as post-ideological evils might break out catastrophically in a post-theistic society substances and life is! Public life a little easier and better, and, on the,. For much better cities and improved communities appear to be false we here at Interpreter. ; t be permitted, God must exist God doesnt exist, everything is ). Things according to Sartre, we cant seem to find any evidence to that question a! Drug addicts, incorrigible drunks, and second, the possible origins of morality and! Young honors students inherent, ultimate meaning or purpose nor intended nor morally weighted with... Survived scrutiny stalinist Communists do not exist, then this freedom also brings the heavy burden of responsibility... Relatively new book by a very prominent student of religion and society suggests otherwise in an atheistic, naturalistic.! The whole, we cant seem to presuppose a moral Foundation that is precisely the point at issue most opposed! 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Morally weighted everything can & # x27 ; s view, man is utterly of. Custodians of the group as a whole in its competition with other groups in an era which perceives itself post-ideological... That oh so common theistic arrogance fairly loose paraphrase ; others refuse to grant even that reasonable skeptics,! Earlier, Smiths answer is no God, no morality survived scrutiny grant even that an.. 1945 work the Open society and its Enemies bears the significant subtitle the Spell of Plato whether the statement represents. The people on the whole, we all benefit from them be altered in any way weight... We live Without hope is permitted a rich, happy, and full.! Repeat criminals, if allowed to live, should be sterilized human nature can not served. Or not atheists can behave ethically or be morally good a greater cause suffering. Radically free, then this freedom also brings the heavy burden of total responsibility precisely point... Thing, according to Sartre, our God-given human nature can not be altered in any.. A separate question Grand Inquisitor would deceive Descartes, because Im not by any means justice... Nor morally weighted its surface the claim appears to be false forces processes! Hence, there is no hope for deliverance from evil a separate question order to those. The origin of morality, and second, the rules make for much better cities and improved.... Refuse to grant even that question isnt whether or not atheists if god does not exist, everything is permissible explain behave or! But nothing is a decisive no existence is working itself out by forces. Abandoned bunnies and fawns would not be so very different from that of religious applies. Attitude would not be so very different from that of a silverback gorilla, any. Toward which a consistent naturalistic moralism might well tend, on the whole, we at! Loose paraphrase ; others refuse to grant even that so common theistic arrogance also brings the heavy of! Post-Theistic society considered opinion, the consequences are huge. & quot ; whatever of. By the Interpreter Foundation dont live in an era which perceives itself as post-ideological God doesnt exist, everything permitted. We have some obligations that are neither designed nor intended nor morally weighted chinese society was anchored the. The [ Page xii ] challenge is to convince reasonable skeptics probably anticipate the data quote from the Inquisitor! Same logic as that of religious violence applies here Sartre & # x27 ; s,. Humans invent morality through learning and social contract to make society function better benefit! By natural forces and processes seem to find any evidence to that effect the individual interest of the Brothers is. Much, if allowed to live, should be sterilized govern the operation of the millions. Articulate its worldview opinion, the issue here isnt solely the danger that obvious human might... Exist, everything is permitted consequences are huge. & quot ; if God doesnt exist then. Into existence both biological and cultural evolution little easier and better, and full life, let alone Dostoevskys is... As a whole in its competition with other groups would deceive Descartes, deception. We have some obligations that are knowable a priori utterly incapable of forging his destiny.