“We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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.” This is a foundational idea of American culture and society, but what if you don’t believe in a Creator? How does a non-believer ground concepts like human rights and moral values? Part of the aversion so many people have to atheists is the fear that atheism leads to nihilism, the view that all human values are baseless, that life is without purpose or meaning, and that knowledge is impossible.
But if you spend some time with your humanist friends from SHL you will find that we are not a bunch of nihilists. We live ethical lives, full of meaning and purpose, and most of us are not shy about sharing what we know. In that spirit, Tucker Lentz will be dusting off some of what he learned in 10 years of study in academic philosophy to give a presentation on Metaethics. Metaethics is an area of philosophy that concerns foundational questions about the nature of morality, and all normative concepts more broadly. The presentation will survey some of the challenges of metaethics and various attempts to answer those challenges. In the end, you will have to judge for yourself whether or not we can satisfactorily answer the question, “How can you be good without God?”
4 pm on Sunday, June 9, 2024 at Gage Hall, 4 Archdale St. · Charleston, SC