Nature and Convention, What's the Difference!

When it comes to morality the question that is usual asked is “what is true morality”? What is true goodness, true justice and who defines it or how do we even discover it are the questions that must be answered. For atheist’s who believe in a godless universe the concepts of absolute good and evil, right wrong become very hard to define. If one is seeking to find “what is’ and not what some one thinks “ought to be the case” one must study nature. For nature is “what is” it can not be any other way. For the atheist humans have a nature, that is not corrupted or immoral. It acts according to its nature. Our nature has desires and we act on them. Good and Evil are not exactly the products of the will, but they are the reflection of it. The will is blind and can not give us a rational justification for the ultimate ends that we pursue. If one wants to be a true atheist and live according to true morality, then he must live according to nature, which is what “is”. All actions are right as they reflect our nature to desire. If we want an objective standard that reflects a godless universe that has nothing to do with human edict, customs and rules, that is in no sense fabricated or dependent on what anyone says or does. Then we must seek “nature”. The laws of nature are not things that are so because someone has decreed that they should be so, or because people have become accustomed to so regarding them. They are so everywhere, no matter what anyone might think or do. They are not relative, then, to customs, laws, opinions, or conventions. For they are true by nature.

Do atheists want to live according to their “true” morality, that being “anything goes”. The law of nature is basically the law of anarchy. Rape, murder, lust, greed is all part of our nature. This is what our nature desires. Nature also does not show us that all humans are created equal. If one wants to keep to “true’ morality then the idea of human rights becomes an illusion. We are in fact suppressing individual rights to do what they want.

If atheist can’t accept this view of morality then the other option is convention morality. This view enters the realm of relative opinion, no view is better or worse than another just different, and any of them could change over time. In this view morality of what is good is just an invention of people desires. They are clearly man made and could have been other wise. The question must still be asked about conventions, do they correspond with what is right? In the end the idea of goodness becomes an empty concept corresponding to nothing absolute. So how is an atheist to talk about true morality? When both nature and convention can justify any act. What is the definition of an immoral behavior? Are there no actions that we consider absolutely wrong apart from opinions, which destroys the power of the obligation to summit to any rule. The problem with the atheist is that a godless universe is goodness free and evil free world. Humans are not created inherently good nor are they struggling with a sinful nature that is acting against the way it should act. It just seems that atheist cant get away from a moral universe. Our minds just know deep down that something’s are wrong no matter what people views are on it. That some of our actions are wrong, but this implies that we have a corrupt nature fallen from some absolute objective standard of goodness.