"What we need today is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics."
-Dalai Lama
"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality."
-John F. Kennedy
Euthyphro Dilemma:
Treatise on Morality:
God, Morality and Gratuitous Football Metaphors.:
Bears, Values, and Aluminum Rulers.:
Why Objective Morality is a Farce:
Center For Inquiry NYC Lecture - Voices of Reason -- Sam Harris: The Moral Landscape:
A similar 27-minute lecture by Sam Harris followed by more in depth Q&A here.
Dr. Bruce Flamm, Mark Smith, and Alez Uzdavines vs. Dr. Hugh Ross, Clay Jones, and Dan Grossenbach - debate highlights:
THE MORALS OF AN ATHEIST Christopher Hitchens:
"Morality Without Gods" - Massimo Pigliucci, Sunsara Taylor, Matthew LaClair:
This actually isn't a formal debate but a discussion among non-beleivers about morality that was held at New York University. However, because 2 of the debaters either identify themselves as Marxists or as arguing from a Marxist perspective, there is some degree of debate that takes place. The A-Team sides with the non-Marxist Massimo Pigliucci's stance here.
The Pre-Religion, and Pre-Human, Roots of Morality:
Debate: Is God Necessary for Ethics? - Hausam/Keller - April 13, 2007:
Michael Shermer on the Science of Good and Evil at TAM 2:
"Religion makes sense to me. I have trouble with dogma more than I have trouble with religion. I think the best thing religion does is give people a sense of place, purpose, and compassion. My quibble with it is when it’s described as the only way to have those things instilled.
You can be moral and not be religious, you can be compassionate, you can be empathetic—you can have all those wonderful qualities. When it begins to be judged as purely based on religion, then you’re suggesting a world where Star Jones goes to heaven but Gandhi doesn’t.
Like anything else that’s that powerful—that is touching that deep into the epicenter of the human psyche and our fears, it can be misused. I’m probably much more responsive in a bad way to dogma and to extremism than to religion.
When people say things like, 'I found God and that helped me stop drinking,' I say, 'Great! More power to you. Just know that some people stop drinking without it.' It’s when it gets into the realm of 'This is the only way to salvation'—that’s when I think, 'Okay, now we’re getting into a problem.'"
-Jon Stewart (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0907&article=the-truth-smirks)
