Question: Part 1: The Religious debate over "objective morality"

C.S. Lewis develops this point in more detail (no required reading). One of his most quoted ideas on the subject: "Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." What are other values that might be universal? Lewis is claiming that the laws of morality are as absolute as the laws of math; you cannot imagine a human society who contradicted the laws he alludes to in this quote. Thoughts?

- What are some reasons that moral values might be universal other than the claims of religion being true? What are the logical implications of moral values are not universal? Is that something that we can simply give up on?

Part 2: Sartre and Nietzsche

- What do you think of this claim (if it is confusing and you have not done the reading, please do. The Nietzsche is imposing, the the Sartre is shorter and hopefully more accessible)? Is it possible to freely decide, admitting that you could freely decide to do otherwise, to be a killer, or to be depressed and anti-social, or to be a hateful, bitter person?

- What do you guys think of Sartre's foundational premise that existence precedes essence, that there is no human nature? Are we blank slates, or is this idea a bit dated?

- What (be honest) do you think of the fantasful dialogue I wrote at the end of the Sartre reading?

- What are some examples (either as categories, or in terms of specific people) of master morality? Of people doing things, and thinking of these things as good, even though (or perhaps because) they are driven by lust, vanity, and self-glorification? Fictional characters welcome.

- What do you think of Nietzsche's apparent preference for master over slave? Is slave morality, the morality of utility, really that dull and uninteresting? Can you see why nihilists would claim that, if we all made decisions as Jack did, our consumer lives and out cultural lives would become somewhat inhuman?

- Nihilists are sometimes accused of being elitist; after all, Nietzsche's "superman," the perfect embodiment of Master Morality, is presented as being extremely rare. Very few of us can stare the essential bleakness of life in the face and not only accept it, but glory in it, become Masters. Thoughts?

Part 3: The New Atheists

- Who are the New Atheists? Just what is "new" about them?

Wired Magazine has done a series of profiles and articles about the New Atheists, have indeed help codify them as a group, as a movement. A decent introduction to their project is found here, although it doesn't include Hitchens (no, this is not required reading):

• THE CHURCH OF THE NON-BELIEVERS (BY GARY WOLF)

Dawking helpfully gave a recent interview with cnn.com:

Dawkins: Religion no moral compass (By Jason Miks)

Search wired.com for Hitchens, Dawkins, or anyone else, and you'll find some interesting coverage.

Questions for discussion: People who geek out about these authors are often enamored of the Pastafarian movement, AKA, the church of his noodly appendage. These are people who claim (and they are an officially registered religion with the US Federal gov, with the right to marry people and register houses of worship as non-profits) to worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Their mantra: "We'll stop believing in our God when you stop believing in yours."

The FGM website and movement centers around a fascinating, simple argument, begun, perhaps, by the philosopher David Hume, who suggested that the world might have been created by a loving God, or it might have been laid as an egg by a gigantic chicken floating in outer space; neither claim was any more or less verifiable or rational. Similarly, the FGM crowd's argument can be summarized in two forms:

(1) So some of you believe in God, and some of you believe in karma and reincarnation. Well, guess what! I believe that the there are two Gods; one is Butterfinger wrapper that's in my kitchen trash can, and the other is the sweater I'm wearing. My claims are no more or less verifiable or rational than yours. Mock me, and you mock yourself.

(2) The extreme diversity of religious belief about the origin of the universe and the purpose of existence, the world, and mankind is such that the most logical conclusion is not that one belief system is right, but that they are all wrong. If any particular supernatural narrative were true, it would have become manifest or dominant by now. The rational person either accepts one religion, or rejects them all, because religions make factual claims about the world that directly contradict one another, so you can 'tolerate' and 'respect' as many as you like, but you cannot accept them.

Both arguments have a common strategy: that all claims about the supernatural are on equal footing by definition, so therefore we may as well just make up our own 'god' or else stop believing in all spiritual narratives. This basic, sarcastic, total dismissal of all religious experience is quite effective and popular among a growing number of people. Just in San Francisco, several groups with Pastafarian pamphlets picket religious events at AT&T park to hand out atheist literature. What do you think of these arguments?

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