Louise Antony argues that we can in “Good Minus God”
Op-Ed Opinion in NYT, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/good-minus-god/
Louise M. Antony teaches philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“Why do so many people dislike atheists? I gather that many people believe that atheism implies nihilism — that rejecting God means rejecting morality. Atheism does not entail that anything goes. Quite the opposite.”
Either DCT or DIT (Divine Command Theory – Good is good because God commands it (which can change with the Greek gods) vs. Divine Independent Theory – that good is good independently of God. God is good because God perceives good as good. She argues for DIT and then says that since good is independent of God, you can have atheism AND morality. If you believe there is no God, you are still capable of perceiving good.
Fallacies:
False dichotomy. If Good is dependent on God, there must be a God, because we all know there is Good. If good is independent of God, the only conclusion is that there is no God. For example, whether we believe in gravity or not, we are ruled by it.
Maybe she is only arguing that one may have a keen sense of morality even if they do not believe in God. Christians would readily agree.
A Christian theist would argue that we perceive good as good, even if we do not believe there is a God, because we still have the Imago Dei – the image of God. All have general revelation through nature. We would argue that our perception of God has nothing to do with God’s existence, since God’s existence is independent of our agreement or perception.
Interestingly, she introduces a new idea at the end that could be a book by itself. That when you give up God you also give up redemption.
I want to close by conceding that there are things one loses in giving up God, and they are not insignificant. Most importantly, you lose the guarantee of redemption. Suppose that you do something morally terrible, something for which you cannot make amends, something, perhaps, for which no human being could ever be expected to forgive you. I imagine that the promise made by many religions, that God will forgive you if you are truly sorry, is a thought would that bring enormous comfort and relief. You cannot have that if you are an atheist. In consequence, you must live your life, and make your choices with the knowledge that every choice you make contributes, in one way or another, to the only value your life can have.
Some people think that if atheism were true, human choices would be insignificant. I think just the opposite — they would become surpassingly important.
This is a major reason for belief in God. We want redemption. We are damned without it. Moreover, we perceive that redemption is a reality that we can experience.