Ben Shapiro; logically bankrupt moron

Okay guys I've got an idea you've never heard before: atheists are evil and have no morality, and rather than explain why atheists are still nice, I'm just going to ramble on about determinism when I think I'm talking about religion. Never heard it before? Well I have, but never from a non fundy, until now...behold the mighty link...

Done reading it? Good. Didn't read it? Even better, as you are about to see it again, in bite sized pieces:

Why Atheism Is Morally Bankrupt
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
By Ben Shapiro

we are off to a great start, it even has a catchy title like mine!

If you walk around Washington, D.C., on a regular basis, you’re likely to see some rather peculiar posters. But you won’t see anything more peculiar than the ads put out by the American Humanist Association. “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake,” say the signs, in Christmas-colored red and green.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Just be good for goodness’ sake. You don’t need some Big Man in the Sky telling you what to do. You can be a wonderful person simply by doing the right thing.

Yes, it does sound great. Oh wait, you are being sarcastic and about to say something disingenuous and moronic, aren't you?

There’s only one problem: without God, there can be no moral choice. Without God, there is no capacity for free will.

Oh noez, not the argument from "without god the universe cannot possibly be indeterministic and I'm going to make blanket statements about atheists under the cover of determinism". Come on now, free will has nothing to do with religion, and if you dare disagree I shall throw my copy of freedom evolves at you...rawr.

That’s because a Godless world is a soulless world.

its also a karmaless world, a chakraless world, a chiless world, a magicless world, a ghostless world, a zenless world, and a rational world. I'm betting that most of those concepts Ben would reject because he is a christian, so the entire thing is a huge emotional non sequitor in which Ben points his finger and goes "look, they don't believe in my type of magic, so they can't be good."

Virtually all faiths hold that God endows human beings with the unique ability to choose their actions—the ability to transcend biology and environment in order to do good. Transcending biology and our environment requires a higher power—a spark of the supernatural. As philosopher Rene Descartes, put it, “Although … I possess a body with which I am very intimately conjoined … [my soul] is entirely and absolutely distinct from my body and can exist without it.”

Now when we say soul, what are we talking about here? Do you mean your personality, and they way you act towards others, because if so, I'm afraid that your soul is only is small fragment of your brain. If you mean something that everyone has, but it doesn't affect how they act towards others, than the frelling thing is pointless as far as your argument goes.

Gilbert Pyle, the atheistic philosopher, derogatorily labeled the idea of soul/body dualism, “the ghost in the machine.” Nonetheless, our entire legal and moral system is based on the ghost in the machine—the presupposition that we can choose to do otherwise.

Once again, linking atheism to determinism is moronic.

We can only condemn or praise individuals if they are responsible for their actions. We don’t jail squirrels for garden theft or dogs for assaulting cats—they aren’t responsible for their actions. But we routinely lock up kleptomaniacs and violent felons.

We don't lock up squirrels, but it isn't because they don't have a soul, its because squirrels are nearly incapable of any kind of behavior that isn't instinctive. We don't lock them up, because they don't have the cognitive ability to think "hmm, maybe taking this away from others is a bad thing" and it isn't a soul that gives a human the ability to think like that. Your brain controls your personality, morals, emotions, behavioral patterns, and instincts, not some floaty ghost in the machine.

It’s not only our criminal justice system that presupposes a Creator. It’s our entire notion of freedom and equality. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, supposed atheist, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I just wanted to say that Jefferson was a deist, not an atheist. If he was alive today he would probably be an atheist, but atheism wasn't really an easily comprehensible idea in the 1700's.

Human equality must spring from a Creator, because the presence of a soul is all that makes man human and equal. Biology suggests inherent inequality—who would call Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stephen Hawking equal in any way? Biology suggests the sort of Hegelian social Darwinism embraced by totalitarian dictators, not the principles of equality articulated by the Founding Fathers.

Of course evolutionary biology suggests inherent inequality, just because it exists doesn't make it morally right. Ideas evolve too though, as does society. Humans have reached a point where they are developing knowledge quite a bit faster than they are developing physical traits, we have developed our own legal systems out of the most primal instincts of survival, moral concepts about other arise from contemplating the way that we and others should be treated, and ideas evolve. Claiming that god is responsible for the social evolution of humans seems kind of cheesy to me.

Without a soul, freedom too is impossible—we are all slaves to our biology. According to atheists, human beings are intensely complex machines. Our actions are determined by our genetics and our environment. According to atheists, if we could somehow determine all the constituent material parts of the universe, we would be able to predict all human action, down to the exact moment at which Vice President-elect Joe Biden will pick his nose.

you wouldn't be talking about something like laplace's demon, perhaps?

Freedom is generically defined as “the power to determine action without restraint” (Random House). But if action without restraint is impossible, how can we fight for freedom?

Believe it or not, at this point I considered actually mailing Ben "freedom evolves", and attaching a note to it that said "please bang your head against this book, and read it...but not in that order", but then I remembered that as soon as he opened the book, his eyes would become blinded by the sexy picture of Daniel Dennett.

If there is no God, there is no freedom to choose. If there is no freedom to choose, there is no good or evil.

Just because there is no objective morality for atheists does not mean there is no morality. its like saying that because not every country agrees on the correct punishment for murder, that no country punishes for murder. Even christian morality, and Islamic morality aren't uniformal, despite that both holy books claim to be. If they were than Sunnis and Shiites wouldn't exist, Catholics and Protestants would be joined as well. Its all in how the people interpret things.

There is merely action and inaction. There is no way to “be good for goodness’ sake”—that would require an act of voluntary will far beyond human capacity.

Altruism is beyond human capability? Isn't the idea that, if you help people than they will be more likely to help you back, enough of a reason to do good things? What about making others happy because we ourselves know that we like to be happy? Are humans really too moronic to act on those thoughts(yes, I realize that some are. Those people are civil suit lawyers)? As you said before "You don’t need some Big Man in the Sky telling you what to do [to do the right thing]". It may help you to do nice things, but not everyone needs that.

Atheists simply gloss over this point. The American Humanist Association states on its website, whybelieveinagod.org, “We can have ethics and values based on our built-in drives toward a moral life.” Without a soul, this is wishful thinking of the highest order.

I still do not see how this shiny soul thing affects morality. This unique argument of mixing body-soul dualism and an argument from indeterminism is starting to look very faulty. I'm pretty sure the only way this argument can stand up is if you start with the premise that the brain does not control one's behavior and personality, or if one says that the brain is controlled by the soul. The problem with the first premise is that is completely disagrees with modern neuroscience, and the problem with the second is that it doesn't allow Ben to make blanket statements about atheist morality.

Since when does biology dictate a moral drive? If it did, wouldn’t man always get more rather than less moral—wouldn’t history be a long upward climb? What about the murderers, rapists, child molesters and genocidal dictators? Are they all ignoring that “built-in drive toward a moral life”?

Of course biology doesn't give us morality, then again...neither does gravity. Human-kind must be drug kicking and screaming towards morality, sometimes its a religious group that is at the forefront, and sometimes it is the religious who kick and scream the loudest.

Atheism may work for individuals. There are moral atheists and there are immoral religious people. But as a system of thought, atheism cannot be the basis for any functional state.

It is not a system of thought. It is simply a lack of belief. Just as a lack of belief in the loch ness monster is not a system of thought, the lack of belief in a god does not give you an innate mindset towards anything other than a belief in a god.

If we wish to protect freedom and equality, we must understand the value of recognizing God.

Subtext: atheists are a danger to freedom and equality, because they do not believe in a god.Well gee thanks, I appreciate the sentiment...

We must recognize the flame of divinity—free will—He implanted within each of us.

By "he" you mean the flying spaghetti monster, right?
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In conclusion, I'd like to recommend that all of you immoral atheists please keep aborting babies, burning christians, and giving all of your money to those greedy greedy jews...oh, and be please be prepared for the final battle on christmas tomorrow. Shields are not necessary, but you MUST bring at least one copy of the bible/koran/torah/samhita/analects/Mahabharata NO EXCEPTIONS. We are having a huge bonfire before the final battle, and hoping that the fire will help us summon the armies of satan, baal, and mephisto.