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Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 13, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Can you explain why an atheist would spend time reducing suffering if none of it matters once all human life has passed away?

Even if human life passes away, the suffering is real now. There is no reason to privilege some future state in which the person is dead over the current state in which the suffering exists, as if that future state makes it unimportant to change the present state.

And if there’s no moral reason to ease another’s suffering, because there is no actual moral judge

I am the moral judge. Am I an omniscient, absolutely perfect moral judge? No, but I am a moral judge and my thoughts about what is right and wrong are not irrelevant.