Hey man, why did you close the other thread?! I was doing this crazy multi-tasking at work, typing bits of my post and doing work at the same time. The thread was quite interesting. In any case, just to answer the questions and clarify on points made, please find my post below. You are then free to close the thread immediately afterwards
I never said that you had to believe in God to believe in humanity.
Not necessarily. If we are to view this objectively, people only do so simply because that is how they are designed (if you dismiss God's existence for the sake of argument). You are correct in that:
But remember, you guys are failing to understand the point I am making about the grand scheme of things. I'm not talking about the quantitative value of humanity and its emotions, but the value of it. Matt H is talking about empathy and this so-called moral compass. I'm asking you, where are you deriving these standards from? Many scientists repeatedly state that the purpose of human beings is to simply reproduce. That just attributes a mere numerical value to our existence. So all this talk about empathy, love and selflessness isn't really relevant.
Let me put it crudely;
Person # 1: Kills, rapes and causes 'evil' by our understanding
Person # 2: Charitable, caring, compassionate.
End result: both dead- no memories. All the pain suffered by the hands of the victims or the joys and love enjoyed by the receivers are a result of biological processes also ultimately negligible as the above drowns in the 'sea of history' if you will.
But just to entertain your really well worded point Matt- one could argue that the atheist in your scenario could also be argued to be selfish. Afterall, maybe Stalin or Hitler thought what they were doing was "right". This concept of 'good' or 'right' is always in a state of flux- never definite and possibly reflecting the sentiments of the majority at the time.