While I ask forgiveness of those who are tired of hearing me say this over and over, there is a tragic occasion compelling me to repeat my conviction that one of the most important general ethical issues is the way many people all too often think, not in terms of What is right? and What is wrong?
but in terms of Who is right? and Who is wrong? This goes along with the irrational tendency to make negative generalizations and to hold people in a group collectively responsible for the behavior of only some people who are in that group.
Liberals like me are good at avoiding negative generalizations about Black people and women, but I’ve pointed out that sometimes some of us have no hesitation to commit the same error when it comes to negative generalizations about other groups, particularly men. I think that as rational Humanists, we should uphold as an abstract but fundamentally important principle the ideal of never excusing or committing either the fallacy of holding groups responsible for the actions of individuals among them, or the fallacy of thinking in terms of Who is wrong? instead of What is wrong? As Timothy Travis reminds us, the guiding principle of Humanism is that We are all in this together.
The tragic news is that three Muslim students were killed in Chapel Hill. The man who turned himself in for killing them, Craig Stephen Hicks, is an atheist. While many facts are as yet undetermined, this may be an example of attacking these Muslims because of the actions of Islamist terrorists, a horrific example of the fallacy I am talking about. There is also news that the whole thing may have been precipitated by a neighbor dispute about the recurring problem of where to store the excessive number of automobiles our distorted urban environments make us dependent on.
But there will perhaps also be a backlash against atheists, yet another example of the same fallacy. Of course, it should go without saying that atheists like Sam Harris – who has criticized, not Muslims collectively, but some barbaric ideas in Islam – do not sanction this senseless killing. But I will not be surprised if someone accuses Harris or other prominent atheists as having stoked their followers into a frenzy and essentially calling upon Craig Stephen Hicks to do this.
It may be that before this day is done someone online will trace this back to Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett or some other prominent atheist, if it has not happened already. If you see an example, please reply to this post with information about the example.
I hope that the American Ethical Union, the American Humanist Association and other national organizations defending the civil rights of atheists and agnostics will respond to this tragedy, not only to condemn attacking some Muslims for what other Muslims have done, and not only to condemn attacking some atheists for what other atheists have done, but also to make the general ethical point that there is something fundamentally wrong with the concept of collective responsibility. And let’s join together to promote the acceptability of atheism and its compatibility with ethics.
I would very much like to learn the considered views of others in the Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle, as well as others both within and outside the local secularist communities, about this more general issue and how we can help develop in the culture at large a more intelligent and rational approach to moral values that is based on the recognition of individual responsibility, and on the recognition of the fallacy of collective responsibility.
