Comments on The Jews for Jesus Blog: MEET THE NEW ATHEISTS... same as the Old Atheists

Hello there, discovered this site and your blog......

2009-06-30T10:50:10.053-07:00

Hello there, discovered this site and your blog...I love it all and will keep coming back! It is all very interesting to me and I am going to recommend it to my friends who are disciples of Jesus! Keep up the great blog entries!

Dear Anonymous,I read with interest the New York T...

2009-03-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Anonymous,

I read with interest the New York Times article about Dr. Franz DeWaal's research and theories about monkey morality. But even Dr. DeWaal made this admission in his book, Good Natured: “Even if animals other than ourselves act in ways tantamount to moral behavior, their behavior does not necessarily rest on deliberations of the kind we engage in. It is hard to believe that animals weigh their own interests against the rights of others, that they develop a vision of the greater good of society, or that they feel lifelong guilt about something they should not have done.”

As Dinesh D’Souza notes in his book, What’s So Great About Christianity: “The problem is that this entire framework of Darwinian analysis does not even come close to explaining morality. It confines itself to explaining altruism, but it only succeeds in explaining what may be termed ‘low altruism.’ But humans also engage in ‘high altruism’: which may be defined as behavior that confers no reciprocal or genetic advantage. A man stands up to give his seat on a bus to an old lady. She is nothing to him, and he is certainly not thinking that there may be a future occasion when she or someone else will give him a seat. He gives up his seat because he is a nice guy. There is no Darwinian rationale that can account for his behavior.”

I find it interesting that you conclude your comment by referring to the “God-given innate moral compass in each of us.” On this very important point we seem to agree!

Matt Sieger

My comment is not in regard to the truth or falseh...

2009-03-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

My comment is not in regard to the truth or falsehood behind athiesm. It simply responds to the blog's comment that past atheists remarked that without god there is no morality, whereas current atheists do not make that argument.

Science is closer and closer to finding innate morals in animals. If this is proven, we will have a firmer understanding of the presence of morals in humans without the belief in god. Current atheists understand this and follow this scientific research, where past atheists could not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html

This article from the NYTimes is from 2007 and therefore out of date in the world of scientific research, but is good for understanding the origins of the scientific discovery as to where our natural moral compass comes from. If we argue that God, and the belief there in, is the basis for our sense of morality, then we will need to rewrite history and the moral transgressions mady by millions in the name of God. Religion and God certainly help provide a blueprint for moralistic behavior but morals alone are not a strong enough argument for a reasoned belief in God and modern atheists know it. Belief and a well-educated following of God's doctrine can simply strengthen or heighten the already-present God-given innate moral compass in each of us.