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| A cartoon rendition of the so-called “killing spree paradox”, often put to atheists, by believers, who raise the question about the basis of atheistic morality. |
“Crebillon … treats the passions like playing cards, that one can shuffle, play, reshuffle, and play again, without their changing at all. There is no trace of the delicate, chemical affinity, through which they attract and repel each other, reunite, neutralize [each other], separate again and recover.”— Johann Goethe (1799), “Letter to Friedrich Schiller”, Oct 23
“The morality Libb would propose, is never explicitly proposed. Rather, Libb, each time after he says ‘life does not exist’, goes on to claim that this should have something to do with morality. To me the most obvious moral principle that would follow from ‘life does not exist’ is that ‘it really doesn’t matter whether we would kill somebody’, since life does not exist. Clearly, such reasoning is highly immoral and I hope that Libb does not propose this?” (pg. 97) .... Can Libb be a serial killer if it doesn’t really matter since: one, life does not exist, so you cannot remove it, and two if the negativeness of dG tells me that killing many people is OK, then I must do so.” (pg. 104)
— David Bossens (2013), Debates of the Hmolpedians [2]
“What’s stopping me, if I am just a molecule, and morality or the judgment of god does not exist, from going on a killing spree?”— Rodolfo Flores (2013), In Person Query to Libb Thims, Oct 10; compare: molecules in motion
See: Dostoyevsky dilemmaThe original statement of the premise that if there is no god, then anything goes, was stated directly by Russian moral atheism philosopher Fyodor Dostoyevsky, as follows:
“If god does not exist, everything is permissible.”— Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1880), The Brothers Karamazov; view of Ivan Karamazov
“If it all happens naturalistically? What’s the need for god? Can’t I set my own rules? Who owns me? I own myself!”— Jeffrey Dahmer (c.1993), variant of atheism belief he tried (see: killing spree paradox); as told to his father (Ѻ)
“If a person doesn’t think there is a god to be accountable to, then—then what's the point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges? That's how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing ...”(add discussion)— Jeffrey Dahmer (1994), interview (Ѻ) with Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC, Nov 29
