Who decides what is morally good?
We've all heard this one to death, we all know the answer to the question, the hard part is explaining it in an intuitive way to help a simpler mind understand. I think I might've found a good analogy.
Theist: Who decides what is moral and what isn't?
Atheist: What's your favourite sport?
Theist: It's <insert sport> Why?
Atheist: Who decides the rules of <sport>?
Theist: It's <sport organisation>
Atheist: If <organisation> said that from now on <silly rule - e.g. pitches are now 80 miles long> is a new rule would that be the rules of the game from now on?
Theist: No. That would be silly.
Atheist: Then <organisation> don't decide the rules. They can only introduce rules that are considered sensible. How do you decide whether a rule is sensible? Why is <silly rule> a silly rule?
Theist: It would ruin the game. The rules are there to make the game play well.
Atheist: So rather than some person decide what the rules of the game are, they are determined by the nature of the game and how well the game plays with them.
Atheist: Morality is like that. It isn't a person who decides what is moral and what is immoral. We live in society and we work out the rules we must abide to in order to make society nice to live in. This is how we decide what is moral and what is immoral. Do you use <organisation> rules when you are playing with your kids?
Theist: No. Playing with official rules doesn't work for fun games like that.
Atheist: In otherwords, you understand the spirit of the game so understand which rules will make a good game and which rules will make a bad game. You use your experience and common sense. The Bible says <insert Bible quote where God orders his follows to commit mass slaughter/eat babies>. Do you consider this to be moral? If not, why not?
Theist: God clearly didn't mean that to be taken literally.
Atheist: How do you know he didn't. It's what he said. You say that the Bible decides you morality and here the Bible tells you that <mass slaughter/eating babies> is morally correct. How do you know that it wasn't meant to be understood in this way?
Theist: Use some common sense! <mass slaughter/eating babies> is obviously wrong so God wouldn't order it.
Atheist: So you have to use some common sense?
Atheist: This common sense is the root of your morality. It decides how you interpret the Bible. The Bible merely inspires your moral thinking with anecdotes and stories. Your true grasp of morality comes from you understanding the spirit of society and understanding the behaviour that will make it work.
It's a first draft/first take but what do you think?
Is the sports (or any game of your choice) analogy good for helping them understand the nature of morality?
The last bit stole the theme of Chris' "Christians must steal from secular morality" to show them that their morality is also secular. Thoughts?