The denial of the existence of God, the denial of a single privileged source of moral authority, opens up the question of how we
are then to determine right and wrong. This is a very involved, very complex question, but it is really a matter for its own thread. My main point here, is that God, as depicted in the sacred books of Christianity, is, by
reason, not the kind of being that can wield moral authority over us.
But to give a quick sketch of how it is that God's commands can violate "my" moral authority (an authority which I indeed wield, but only in concert with my peers), I'll say this: I regard myself as having original moral prerogatives, otherwise known as 'rights,' as a consequence of the kind of being that I am - namely, a rational-moral agent. Now, as a rational-moral agent, I do not exist in a vaccuum; I am embedded in a community of peers, all of us morally equal to one another because we all possess this same rational-moral free nature. This original equality is the basis for our making claims
against our peers, when they exercise their freedom in ways that are detrimental to the prerogative of myself or others to equal freedom - to their
rights, in other words.
To say that we are all originally morally equal, is not of course to say that we are all (or should be) equal in our material fortunes. Some of us, by luck and some measure of effort, are able to exercise power over others. But this power is never without limit; it must always respect the essential equal rights, and consequent equal dignity, of all. When that does not happen, when the powerful try to lord it over the rest of us, we are entitled (and indeed, our Founders would say that we are
obligated) to challenge that abused authority, in word and in deed.
I in my very rights, in my very nature as a rational-moral being, have the power and prerogative to judge that others are not using their freedom to abuse others. When I see that this is happening, I
can exercise the authority,
in the name of our common rational-moral nature, to call the powerful to account. I of course will do so at physical risk; but I have that right, all the same. Again,
the cardinal error of monotheism, found again and again in the texts of all the Semitic faiths, is to mistake power for righteousness.
It does not matter that our being is wholly dependent upon the whim of a Creator. If by nature we are truly free, and not slaves, then we have the same basic rights and dignity as the Creator itself. At some time in the future, we may develop and android which, when we switch it on, enjoys feeling and has free will. We may hold in our hand a remote control that would serve as the "off" switch for that new intelligent being; but the mere fact that we made it, would
never justify us in turning the android
off, or in making it a slave to serve us.
Originally Posted by Pericles
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