About this god person.
I’ve been arguing about it with Michael Nugent on the Atheist Ireland Facebook group. It started from an aphoristic remark Michael made there yesterday:
Because theism is a statement about the nature of reality and morality, atheism is also a statement about the nature of reality and morality.
I said
I think both theism and atheism are statements about reality. I’m not sure either is necessarily a statement about morality.
There could be a theism that posited a “god” with no interest in humans and thus no interest in giving them moral instructions.
Michael’s view is that belief even in a god with no interest in humans is still a belief about morality.
I agree that it can be, but I disagree that it has to be. Believing that an infinite array of things have nothing to do with morality isn’t a substantive belief about morality (except in the attenuated sense that it’s a belief that some things are about morality while others are not). I don’t think the moon has anything to do with morality; that’s not really a belief about morality.
(Well I suppose you could make a case that it is, in the sense that it’s a belief that gravity isn’t the foundation of morality, that morality isn’t influenced by the tides, and faintly absurd notes like that. But I don’t think that’s what we mean by “about morality.”)
My objection to the idea (and I do object to it, as well as just disagreeing with it) is that it buys into the conventional assumption that god just is about morality, when instead we should realize that that’s a contingent belief, not an inherent aspect of belief in a god or some gods.