Received 11.16.2001

If there is no god, why is it wrong what they did. Remember we are just monkeys, you are a monkey, your feelings are just adaptive studpid behaviour. In the animal world is kill or be kill. So don't talk about Love. U are just a monkey, and a complex chemical, there is no love.

Why don't u admit that love can not be created with chemicals.

You are evil, I know that in your own personal life u are evil and do evil.

God didn't create religion, man did. If you take god out of the picture, you have chaos.

My Reply:

I decided to a break from my busy agenda of evil doing, to reply to your note.  I think you may be the archetype of the sort of person that drove me to create this web site.  You assume that people who do not believe in God or who are not in denial about evolution are evil without knowing anything else about them.

I agree that our feelings, including love, are just adaptive behavior. Love evolved as the best way to ensure our slow-developing children reach adulthood and in turn have children themselves. Love creates families, or small communities where members help each other survive. Love makes parents protective of their children, afraid to even let them out of their site. For millions of years people who loved better survived better.  But, love is still the most powerful experience we can have during our brief existence on Earth and since this the only life we have it is all the more important.

I assume you are referring to September 11th when you write about "what they did."  I find this ironic considering that religion was the motive behind the attacks, but I am curious how you knew they were wrong.  Did you have to consult the Bible or did you just have an instinctive reaction?  Do you really think that atheists were ambivalent about what occurred?

What is the practical difference between religious and non-religious based morality? Both are merely a consensus of opinion. If God exists, people only truly know what absolute morality is after they die. Since the afterlife and God's judgment decisions are not known to us, we will never know. Pick an issue, something beyond the simplest moral quandary, and ask ten people who identify themselves as Christians what the absolute moral solution is. I guarantee you will receive more than one different answer.

In reality the religious and unreligious make decisions the same way. How many Christians really think about how their actions may contribute to their eternal judgment before they act? People do not perform good deeds out of fear of eternal damnation or the self-interest of going to heaven. We all innately know how we like to be treated and what behaviors hurt us. It doesn't take long to realize that treating others poorly creates poor outcomes.

I have an essay on my site that discusses all of these issues titled "Debunking the moral monopoly on morality." Check it out if you are so inclined.


And for the record, the correct spelling is S-T-U-P-I-D.

Reply from another reader.  Received 11.22.2001

"If there is no god, why is it wrong what they did."

Since there is no afterlife and this life is all we have, it's even more wrong to end it.

The original author responded to my reply.  Here is that letter.

12.10.2001 The author of the 11.16.2001 letter asserts that since atoms and molecules have no will to survive and evolution has no consciousness to guide it, life could not have evolved.  He says that God is the only reason there is life and that I should read the Bible and ask God to enlighten me.