Poll: Atheist Morality

[ZeroMachine]

I don't say I hate people too often.

I hate people who believe that a lack of religion means a lack of morals. It's complete bullshit.

 

[arikata]

Morals are based on the society a person lives in. Religion only reinforces morals, it doesn't make them. It makes me sad that people don't steal and kill because they are worried about hell instead of it simply being a bad thing to do.

 

[The Hairminator]

In my opinion you have to be pretty weak to follow your moral only because of a god, in fear of being punished if you don't.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Sure, moral is up to every person themselves. That's why there are so many troubles in this god-forsaken world.

 

[PartyMonkey]

I don't believe in a God...To be honest I think it is all bullshit and I wish people would stop pushing it on me...and I believe I am pretty Moral.

 

[Adam]

Hanging your morals on the belief of a god is dangerous. For example. You have a christian and an atheist. Chris and Andy let's say. Chris says that Killing is wrong because the Bible says so,Andy says Killing is wrong because to take away the life of another is an evil act, his moral standing on good and evil does not come from the Bible but from what he feels and what society deems.

I would say Chris is morally fucked because he doesn't believe killing is wrong because it is wrong, he believes it's wrong because god said so. Well what if god said that slavery was OK, homosexuality was a sin and that rape was fine too....Oh wait he already has. There are numerous passages in the bible that condone slaver, rape and hatred.

I believe Penn and Teller have covered this subject quiet well and in a humerus way.

Penn and Teller Bullshit is a great show anyway, check it out =3

 

[hippykiller]

Sigh.
Morality is mostly up to an individual, and is also influenced by the society they live in.
There you go.

I also think a thread with any tie to religion is fated to end poorly.

i agree with this guy. don't try to talk about religion or politics here. this is a video game based web site. so lets just talk about video games. and other cool things. like guns, and cookies.

 

[InfernoJesus]

Religion is the basis for many morals. To deny morals is only a small step forward from denying religion. Most universally-religious morals are essential for the structure of society. It is possible to follow these basic morals for no reason other than that they are the most logical choice for keeping society intact.

Morally good or evil is nothing but an incentive to keep society functioning without people who can't make logical decisions fucking things up. Instead of a child realizing that by taking another childs toy, they are making an enemy with the other child and there will be consequences, they think of the morals that they are taught. It's much easier.

 

[RebelRising]

As Voltaire once said: "I do not have morals, but I am a very moral person." He was not, by any means, an atheist, but he makes sense in that, if you stop objectifying moralism, it becomes immediately subjective. Mostly to societal or sensory conditions.

To say that cold-blooded killing, rape, and such are not immoral is absurd, but at least that conclusion has been backed by nearly every human civilization and society in history; chalk it up to experience, if you will. Beyond that, it is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Golden Gryphon]

One of the worst fights I had with my religious ex boyfriend was when he managed to insinuate that I was somehow a worse person than him because I was atheist. He also implied that the Golden Rule started with christianity. For quite a while I was so mad I couldn't speak. He eventually relented and decided I was just a worse person than him in general anyway.

The way I look at it, most religious texts take their moral codes from us, not the other way round.

 

[feather240]

Morals are just a word. I care about people because it will help me in the long term, but when I do help them I don't actually think that, I just do it out of "kindness".

 

[The Man Who Is Thursday]

Yarg, you all sure make it hard to lurk successfully.

As others have said, it does depend on what you mean by morality. If morals are relative, of course there doesn't need to be a basis on God. Relativity implies that there is no basis, it's a free-for-all, essentially. That is generally what the moral argument for God is about. If one can prove that morals exist in an a priori, infinite, and universal way, then their cause would, by definition, be God. Whether or not it's the Christian God would still be up for debate, but the point is that they would be grounded in some superior, immutable *being*. If this being doesn't exist, then there's no immutable law, because we would have preceeded it. "Existence preceeds essence", right?

This is basically existentialism. In spite of the massive amount of "yes" votes on this poll, several notable atheists would vote no. Nietzsche would obviously be one, as well as Sartre.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm

PS: Hey there, all. I've been lurking here for years and never really bothered to post. How goes it? I hope this isn't a poor way to stroll onto the scene, sort of...

 

[somekindarobot]

Although I do follow a religion (Judaism, in case you were curious), I do think that atheists can, and often do, have morals based on the awareness of not doing onto others what they would not like to be done unto them out of respect for them as other human beings. All of the finer aspects and arguments of morality and ethics aside, I do think this general rule needs no debate.

 

[teutonicman]

If you only do good to get into heaven or that you must be rewarded for doing good thing is bull.

 

[Pseudonym2]

I find the question itself absurd. What about the people who do not believe in God and are not atheists? Every culture and every society has their own moral code. Most of them just boil down to the golden rule.

 

[Asciotes]

morality is based on other people reactions to your actions. Since mordering someone will generally offend someone, regardless of whether there's a God or not, this will be considered immoral.

 

[THAC0]

Christians make it sound like the only thing that is keeping them from going on a kill crazy rampage is the fear of punishment. I don't know if this is the impression they want to give but it certainly comes across in some of their "logic".

 

[Captain Pancake]

YOu don't have to be religious to tell that murder is wrong, and it's good to help people. Those are morals, and they haven't got much to do with religion.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

I've always thought that religion uses morality as both back up and scapegoat. They do something because their god told them to, whereas an atheist does something because it's the right thing to do.