Peter Singer: Ethics Without God

Peter Singer is the DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton. He’s the founding president of the International Association of Bioethics and founding co-editor of the journal Bioethics. Singer became internationally known for his bestselling book "Animal Liberation" in 1975. His other books include "Practical Ethics", "A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation" and the family memoir "Pushing Time Away: My Grandfather and the Tragedy of Jewish Vienna." He specializes in ethics in the real world — the title of his 2016 book. In 2004, Singer accepted FFRF’s Emperor Has No Clothes Award. In the “Freethought Matters” interview, Singer comments on ethics without God, death and dying, abortion rights and animal rights. He also gives advice on the topics of two of his books, “The Most Good You Can Do” and “The Life You Can Save,” the latter of which is also the name of his nonprofit enterprise, which has (impressively) raised more than $65 million in effective giving. “I obviously don’t think that you need to believe in God for ethics,” he tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “I think it has nothing to do with it. I think ethics can come from our capacities to reason and capacity to see that we are ourselves beings capable of suffering.” Learn more about the Freedom From Religion Foundation at ffrf.org.