Morality Debate, Part 1
Matt Dillahunty’s opening statement in the debate on “The Origin of Human Morality” at UMBC on Wednesday:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkMAJai5D3c&fs=1&hl=en_US]
He addresses two common misconceptions about morality: first, that secular morality borrows from religious morality. And second, that secular morality does not include an external authoritative source for morality, and that this is somehow a problem.
He argues that since religions disagree with each other on moral questions, so it is not the case that a deity has shown up and given us a clear set of moral rules. And even if a god did show up and clearly tell us what its values are, how can we tell whether those values are correct? (See the Euthyphro dilemma).
We should, he says, seek correct answers, not necessarily easy ones.