From time to time some religious leader, somewhere, seeking to be provocative, will announce, smugly, that of course all morality comes from religion and therefore atheists, those scum of the Earth, have no morality.
Let's leave aside for the moment, the fact that not only is there absolutely no truth in this proposition but the reality is in fact the diametric opposite. The most immoral people on Earth are, always have been, religious, while all atheists are extremely moral people. Let's also leave aside the obvious remark that if it were true then the more extremely religious you were the more moral you would be, and this would make members of Al Quaeda, say, or the people who blow up abortion clinics, extremely virtuous.
So, let us behave as the climate change deniers do and set aside the real world. Let us pretend, just for the moment, that morality did come from religion. This would mean, would it not, that the only reason some people have for being moral, the only reason that stops the average citizen of, say, Kansas or Waziristan, from murdering and raping and robbing and blowing things up and being really nasty to contestants in reality shows, is a belief in an imaginary being.
These people have to have an imaginary friend tell them what's right and wrong?
Thank god I'm an atheist.
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If believers suddenly found out with certainty that God does not exist, would they stop caring for others? For their family? Of course they wouldn't. And that's more evidence for the divorce of morality from scripture. We care because we choose to, because we are naturally compelled to -- irrespective of particular beliefs.
Being good because we're told to be undermines its own premise: because it eliminates sincerity. So the irony (and hypocrisy) is pathetically laughable.
I consciously rejected the idea of religion at age 9; when confronted with fairy tales on one hand and science on the other, I chose to follow the evidence. At that moment I became an Atheist (capital A).
I do not belong to any church, nor am I a member of any religious organization.
I've always been a kind and moral person and have always been considered fair and considerate. I have never killed or injured another human being. I've never done anything to someone else just to see them suffer. I've never knowingly caused others pain - but I have unwittingly, and it made me feel bad.
I don't need fairy tales to tell me not to be mean to people. My frontal lobe does that for me, thanks to evolution.
assertion negates a pet argument of atheists that there is nothing atheists have in common except for their unbelief in God, by trying to make a case for the superior morality of atheists. And it doesn't seem to be that this is satire, because there is nothing else that this article is really asserting.
Finally, anyone who has watched even a single episode of America's Next Top Model knows that reality show contestants are equally vapid-- completely independent of their professed beliefs or non-beliefs in a god.
Although, there are some (not a blanket statement) theists who do try to live a moral life in hopes of reward or fear of punishment. And some don't bother trying to live moral lives, because they believe as Xians they will be forgiven.
I heard a theists on the radio claiming that only believers could be moral, because morals can only come from god. When asked "If you stopped believing in god, do you think you would go out and start raping an stealing an murdering?" ... he said "Yes, I probably would."
I hope this man keeps on believing!!!!!!!
But to say "all atheists are extremely moral people" is ridiculous, and I'm disappointed in Mr. Horton for making the claim. I enjoy his posts and usually find him to be quite reasonable ... he's off base here!
Why am I thinking of lemmings right now?
A vain and jealous God a wrathful God a smallminded God is no God at all.
I think we have reached a stage where it is not the hope of heaven or the fear of hell which causes us to do what is right (granted that determining what is right is not always an easy question) but something more intrinsic.
A sanctimonious, censorious self- righteousness is the shadow which accompanies some religious types, just as a callous materialism hangs over the lives of some atheists.
It happened with Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Capitalism, Communism, The Free Market, Liberalism, Conservatism, and Libertarianism, and, yes, even Agnosticism and Atheism.
Keeping people's and the planet's welfare, safety, and health first and foremost is the morality that can transcend all the above "religions."
So to a really big fan, baseball might be a religion. Or you could say "dancing is her religion" about someone who is really into it. This is nothing at all like actual religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. The only similarity is in level of devotion.
You know what else people can be devoted to "religiously"? The planet's welfare, safety, and health. If you want to criticize liberalism, atheism, agnosticism, conservatism etc as being similar to religions, then identify the actual problems with them. Show how they fundamentally support beliefs not based in fact, reason, or reality.
However, if you're just criticizing being blind to fact, reason and reality, then you're not criticizing any of thoseideologies so much as you're just criticizing people. I hate to disappoint you, but even if we had access to the most perfect philosophy ever, we'd still screw it up, and there's no reason to pretend it was because the philosophy tricked us.
Most thinking atheists, too, adopt it for no better reason that it's simply common sense.
Most higher animals follow it, too, and its the reason our dogs and cats co-exist in the same house in reasonable harmony. Does that make them religious?