Thank you for the well thought out response. Incidentally, after posting I did find the rest of the thread. And let me say - wow, that's the best Slashdot thread I've read in years.
With all due respect, I don't think you've really responded to his initial point. Which was that if you do not believe in a higher power than yourself, what compels you to treat other people fairly? Now, I'm going to make some leaps here so please correct me where I'm wrong.
Being an atheist, you must believe that the ultimate necessity of your existence is purely biological. You have no soul or spirit, and your total existence is nothing more than an elaborate mechanism for replicating DNA. When you die - that's it, you're gone.
Given that premise, what is it that stops you from taking advantage of other people at every opportunity? So far the reasons you've listed are the law and genetic wiring. Neither of those seem like very strong deterrents.
As Bingo Foo pointed out, taking advantage of others is not always (or even usually) illegal. Besides, breaking the law and not getting caught is not that hard. Millions of people do it every day.
And as for genetic wiring - that's certainly easy to overcome. Human beings suppress basic instincts on a daily basis. That's a fundamental tenet of any society (although usually the idea is to suppress bad instincts). As a logical person that believes there are no eternal repercussions for your actions, what keeps you from suppressing your conscience long enough to profit handsomely? When doing so would ultimately benefit the process of distributing your DNA.
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Thank you for the well thought out response. Incidentally, after posting I did find the rest of the thread. And let me say - wow, that's the best Slashdot thread I've read in years.
With all due respect, I don't think you've really responded to his initial point. Which was that if you do not believe in a higher power than yourself, what compels you to treat other people fairly? Now, I'm going to make some leaps here so please correct me where I'm wrong.
Being an atheist, you must believe that the ultimate necessity of your existence is purely biological. You have no soul or spirit, and your total existence is nothing more than an elaborate mechanism for replicating DNA. When you die - that's it, you're gone.
Given that premise, what is it that stops you from taking advantage of other people at every opportunity? So far the reasons you've listed are the law and genetic wiring. Neither of those seem like very strong deterrents.
As Bingo Foo pointed out, taking advantage of others is not always (or even usually) illegal. Besides, breaking the law and not getting caught is not that hard. Millions of people do it every day.
And as for genetic wiring - that's certainly easy to overcome. Human beings suppress basic instincts on a daily basis. That's a fundamental tenet of any society (although usually the idea is to suppress bad instincts). As a logical person that believes there are no eternal repercussions for your actions, what keeps you from suppressing your conscience long enough to profit handsomely? When doing so would ultimately benefit the process of distributing your DNA.