This morning on reddit I stumbled across a new debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza. I don’t watch the debates specifically to hear theists. Their arguments are rather predictable at this point. Rather, I watch for three reasons:
- Hitchens has an eloquent way of talking that I find very refreshing to hear.
- Beyond being eloquent, his recall of literary works is phenomenal, and I am constantly hearing new quotes and explanations from Hitchens. Short of reading and studying all of these works, this is a great way to learn.
- Often I find myself thinking, “Why doesn’t he just argue X?” Not all of the arguments I think of are original, for sure, but there are a few cases I see rarely argued that I think illustrate the point more clearly than the current favored argument.
One of these arguments is a favorite argument of the source of morality. D’Souza argues that without an inspiration of morality from a divine origin we couldn’t be moral.
This argument is often dealt with on an individual basis, but I think it’s quite logical to address this from the perspective of society. Let’s take a step-by-step look at how we can arrive at having morals:
Without modern weapons, each of us stands a small chance of survival in the wilderness when pitted against ferocious animals such as bears, wolves, etc. We can posit that just as wolves roam in packs, we could also likely roam in “packs” or small groups without divine inspiration.
As a member of a small group, we can see how it would be more beneficial to the group to work towards a common goal of hunting a larger animal together to share rather than killing each other. Again, just as wolves have discovered and evolved this trait, we could as well. This provides us our first moral lesson: it isn’t right to kill a member of our group.
When encountering another small group, there are three choices:
1. Attempt to kill/repel the other group to protect your territory. This was likely to be a common response early on, and this instinct can still be observed today.
2. Join together again for the common good. This was probably a less common scenario that happened, but would provide an advantage over smaller groups in that it would be easier to defend your territory.
3. Go separate ways. This is a peaceful alternative to #1.
With these choices we can easily see why #2 would be naturally selected to be the preferred behavior. And thus forms the building blocks for society.
As a whole society forms morals. How can I say that? Let’s take a biblical example. In the old testament, slavery was codified as part of the law (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1). Now, to say that we were innately inspired with morality is cut sharply with this. If we were inspired to be moral beings, why did it take society a couple thousand years to outlaw the practice of slavery?
The truth is that we came to a realization what we were doing was wrong. Those slaves were human beings. This was a choice of society, not of god. We as a whole rose above the stigma of the past, and pushed for equal rights. This has happened time and time again, with the rights of women, animals, and while many are still fighting it, homosexuals.
The bible has many versus which can be shown to go against the aforementioned issues. Take for instance how some Christian denominations still disallow women from taking a leadership role in the church.
Society is a powerful mechanism. It allows us to somewhat democratically decide what we allow and disallow. Even when things are not forbidden by law, certain actions will be looked negatively on by society as a whole. As an example look at the dress/skirt length for women who are in public places. Over the years the dress code has relaxed. It was never part of our nation’s laws, but society has become more tolerant of some actions over the years.
I think it’s a big copout to say that our morals come from anything but us. We should take pride in how we’ve advanced morally in our generation and previous generations. And we should find hope in how we may be able to influence the betterment of our societies morals for generations to come.
