Professor Jim Al-Khalili: Christianity hijacked human values

[rug]

16. I agree with his goal but not with how he got there.

The essence of an ethical system is that it is altruistic. Or, at least that one considers the other's concerns as legitimate as his or her own. That's where I think he ended up.

But he got there through some Randian portal.

And this, "Furthermore, I can pronounce a moral judgment. For I declare that freedom, in respect of concrete circumstances, can have no other end and aim but itself; and when once a man has seen that values depend upon himself, in that state of forsakenness he can will only one thing, and that is freedom as the foundation of all values."

Why? It's a self-referential statement picking but one of many equally valid - and unprovable - ends.