Thank God I'm An Atheist

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.


All David Horton's writing is on The Watermelon Blog.

 

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Comments

[Weirdo]

Bodies of rules for good behavior can and are built by human beings. One only has to look at the evolution of rules for a given sport to see how people develop rules for behavior.

[Dave24]

It is far nobler to perform good works for no reason than to do so in hopes of eternal reward or for fear of eternal punishment. Acting selflessly for the sake of another is often the case for nonbelievers, which I would argue is more moral than doing so out of doctrinal obligation.

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.

[Temsi]

Like every child ever born, I was born an atheist (lower case a) and have remained one ever since.

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.

[JohnFromCensornati]

We atheists are good for nothing.

[minimalist syntax]

“I am going out on a limb here (ducking for cover in advance)... This is a rather vacuous defense of atheism. "The most immoral people on Earth are, always have been, religious, while all atheists are extremely moral people."??! First of all, the people that the author counts as most religious are the very ones that violate more important tenets of faith such as "love your neighbor and enemy" that usually even people who know next to nothing about religions recognize as being core to the religion. Second, this ignores the obviously immoral acts of dictators who are trying to establish officially atheist states like Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-Il, Hohxa, Ceasescu, Mao, etc. not to mention the only extremely right-winged such as Ayn Rand. Finally, this
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.

[kwinter]

On this, I have to agree with you. Morality has nothing to do with a persons theism or atheism.
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!

[minimalist syntax]

I also find those kind of theists (I know the Christian kind unfortunately far too well) to be quite offensive-- to all humanity. And this kind of attitude I find the worst: "And some don't bother trying to live moral lives, because they believe as Xians they will be forgiven." I think this thinking is prevalent whenever Christians believe there is a small group of "elect" and they are the ones to be saved and that gives them the "privilege" to behave however they want because they are saved. That point about the radio interview is scary. I agree, those are people that should definitely not lose their faith or the world is in danger!

[David Horton - Huffpost Blogger]

My apologies for disappointing, kwinter. The claim was, just a little, tongue in cheek, the outrageously over the top claim to match the ones that say atheists can't have morality. I do that sort of stuff sometimes!

[Gary50]

If Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot had believed in God there might have been tens of millions fewer murders committed in the 20th century. Not that belief in God prevents all murder but it does, I think, have an ameliorating effect. Believing in an afterlife based on the good or evil one has done in this life does prevent many people from doing bad things. Believing in a strictly material universe with no God, no soul and no afterlife frees one from moral constraints and allows one to think that any action which benefits oneself is acceptable no matter how much pain, death and destruction it causes others.

[Temsi]

Way to miss the point of the article Gary.

Why am I thinking of lemmings right now?

[gautam benegal]

Is it spiritality that motivates people to be dogmatic and intolerant? Or fear ignorance and superstition?
A vain and jealous God a wrathful God a smallminded God is no God at all.

[cktirumalai]

I have known religious people who behave admirably and I have known atheists (and agnostics) who do so. I must say I have known some of each behave badly.
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.

[spitz]

It's not a stage we've reached. The only reason why morality was attached to hope of heaven or fear of hell is that we put it there. There have always been cultures that have had no concern for either of those fictional places.

[RayArmyVetRetiredAF]

The word atheist should not exist. It’s a religious word invented to pigeonhole anyone who does not believe in ‘whatever.’ I was once about as religious as the average American. But I love learning, especially about natural science and history. I didn’t/don’t want to go through life not knowing how the Universe really works, what we know (or think we know) so far. One night I was sitting in bed reading Carl Sagan’s book, “Broca’s Brain,” and read the article, ‘A Sunday Sermon.’ Afterward I sat there in bed thinking long and hard when I finally admitted to myself a self-revelation, “I’m an atheist. I’m supposed to feel bad about that!” I suddenly felt an intellectual freedom, a sense of relief I’d never known before. I began to have what I could only accurately call ‘orgies of free thought.’ I began to develop higher standards for excepting arguments. I was open to more ideas, and realized, more than ever, that I was certainly wrong about something(s), and that everyone was wrong about something they were certain of, even people I most admired. I also realized that a slick argument too often too easily won the stage when the reality was that the less articulate person actually had the facts on their side. I now demanded more than a well-argued idea; I demand to see the evidence, and I insist on being able to seriously check it to see if it’s the real deal.

[WASanford]

Welcome to the fold.

[minimalist syntax]

you should not just become more rigorous in your excepting of arguments, but also in your accepting of arguments :-) (don't give bad arguers a free pass!)

[eciaccio]

Any and all ideologies can become all-consuming "religions" which blind the believers to facts, reason, and reality.

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."

[spitz]

Your use of the term religion there is based on the idea that someone can show the same amount of enthusiasm for something that is typically shown for ... that's right, religion.

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.

[OutsideLookingIn]

The one rule of morality - do as you would be done by - is found in some shape or form in all religions.

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?

[DAE]

I'm an atheist and have always been such. The quote "The most immoral people on Earth are, always have been, religious, while all atheists are extremely moral people," must have been written as sarcasm. At least I hope so.

[Romsek]

I'm pretty sure it was written as a mirror to the first stated premise to emphasize how absurd the first one was.