Some atheists will disagree that the concepts of right, wrong, good, bad, and so on AS ABSOLUTES are valid at all, on the grounds that they are all completely subjective. Your idea and mine of “good” for any noun X (good beer, good food, good car, good idea, etc.) may be radically different, even if the two varieties of X we’re discussing are virtually identical and indistinguishable from an objective standpoint (Ford vs. Chevy, Budweiser vs. Coors, Taco Bell vs. Del Taco, and so on). This holds true for nonconcrete nouns like “moral decision.”
For example:
Is it a “good” moral decision for Yvette (a hypothetical person who does not exist) to have an abortion? You might say not, reasoning that life is God’s to grant or take, not Man’s. I might say the opposite, since Yvette is poor, in an abusive relationship, addicted to illegal drugs, has no reliable child care available, and lives in a rat-infested tenement, and the child would probably never have the opportunity to have a happy childhood, a chance to succeed, a good education, enough food, or good health. Who’s right? We both are. How can this be, you cry, with such a binary question? Simple: we used different criteria to arrive at our answers, and the question is not binary at all.
There are as many interpretations of all of these subjective words as there are people; do you agree, morally speaking, with EVERY SINGLE moral decision of EVERY SINGLE member of your parish? How about people from the parish across town? In other countries? Of other religions?
To get beyond subjectivism, we must fall back to objectivism. This means dealing only with measurable, quantifiable facts, as opposed to opinion of any kind. Which flower is prettier? Different people might have different opinions. Which flower is taller? This can be answered with certainty. This won’t help us settle the argument about which is prettier, though. This is because “pretty” is another subjective word. As another example, I don’t think that Julia Roberts is all that pretty. Many of my friends disagree strongly with me.
I once participated in a discussion on the Usenet in which the question was asked, “What is the best beer of all?” I opined that there is and can be no absolute best beer (or anything else), since goodness is a subjective measure. There can only be the beer that is best for the person making the decision, based on the factors that are going in to the choice for that person. These factors could even change from time to time, depending on who’s coming to dinner, the weather, the buyer’s budget, the availablity of certain brands, and so on.
So, to summarize all of the above, atheists decide right and wrong subjectively, applying criteria that vary from person to person, case to case, and moment to moment.
A committee is a lifeform with six or more legs and no brain.
