Morality & Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Why can morality be based on that? Q&A at East Carolina University.

[mikeramos]

There has to be an objective standard (God) to call anything good or bad!

[GSpotter]

Moral relativism is nothing but a philosophy held to by those that simply wish to live as they please: A vain effort at continuing their life while attempting to avoiding the guilt of their own trust passes.

[i.f.uprising]

Frank, you are a wonderful speaker. As one Christian to another though, I believe you need to start infusing your claims with more scripture quotes so people hear the word of God. "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." As Christians defending the faith, we need to not only give reasons for why we believe, but also be focused on saving souls.

[ChristopherRyanPitts]

I could ask the same question to you. Why should we follow god? Why is god good?

[SparkeyAvalon]

I like to think about evil as being the opposite of love. (yeah... not hate)
Love is sacrifice. You give something up for the good of the person you love.
No interest. That's love.
Evil on the other hand is you give something up just to do bad.
No interest.

[jessebryant]

If you claim that a person ought to be empathetic... isn't that assuming the very thing you are trying to prove? Are they not arguing that having empathy is moral?

[radnotion]

Why is empathy good? Answer: Because we are naturally social beings that depend on each other for the properity and success of our species. We value life more than nonlife so we tend to promote and sustain life. Our natural ability to empathize can help us feel or react in similar ways what another person is experiencing.

[Rostos]

The questioner in the video is asking a broad question. He asks why morality cant be based on empathy. This question comes with the underlying assumption that humans should or ought or to flourish.
The real question is, why should humans flourish? IS it a fact that humans ought to flourish? In a naturalistic world, No.
If the atheist can GROUND the end goal that humans ought to flourish, then empathy can be used as explanation. The problem is, the atheists cannot GROUND morality.
The only foundation that provides a grounding for objective morality is Theism.

[BeachsideHank]

*Sapient Wisdom:* There is no way for humans to differentiate between a good all-powerful god and an evil all-powerful god.

[sierraclark]

“If you declare with your mouth “Jesus is Lord, ” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Now is the time to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and repent of your sins because Jesus is coming back soon. Tomorrow isn’t promised.

[bingbong]

The 'why' comes from reasoning.

[NameForMyChannel]

If there is a source for objective morality evidence must be provided for it.

I'll go ahead and wait for someone to tell me what their objective moral source is and why that is the objective source for morality.

[IBenZik]

Somebody told you a big word and you fell for it. Now work on the word entropy.

[bocajlundblad]

Morality is a feeling. You can't ask why a feeling is correct.

[tripptank]

Why is it moral or immoral? His answer is God. Ok. So does that make working on Saturday, eating pork and not praying before a meal immoral? If God exists, he decided that things like Murder, stealing, lying etc. are wrong. If God does not exist, we decided those things. So the question "Why is it immoral" can still be asked of both us and God. The only difference is that if asked, we can say that the decision was made from a place of empathy. What can God say? "My ways are not your ways."? Give me a break. Morality is an illusion created by man from a place of empathy. Those without empathy also lack a sense of right and wrong. Coincidence? If God were the source of our morality, that would imply that he is powerless to instill that sense in a sociopath or psychopath. I know no christian is going to concede that god is in anyway powerless. So what is Gods method of deciding? and if it is only because God himself is good, then who decided that?

[mikecheswick]

Frank clearly didn't even understand what the student was asking. If morality is based on empathy that *is* its ontological basis. Frank, in the face of a subjective moral system, repeatedly implies it should have an objective foundation...thereby committing a category error fallacy over and over.

Unfortunately the student didn't have the chops to recognize this and point it out, but anyone worth their philosophical salt can see through Frank's sophistry in an instant.