Atheism and morality

[sapphi_snake]

highwaystar101 said:

Hi guys, just a quick one as I've got a busy day ahead of me.

I want to bring up the issue of atheism and morality. With the recent visit by the pope to the UK the subject of religion has been in the papers and on the internet a lot this week. I've read a few things that are critical of atheism, and this morning I was reading the comment section in the Metro and I was a bit disheartened to see a fair few people equate godlessness with a lack of moral judgement.

I will be the first to put my hand up and admit that atheist morals are not religiously motivated, and as such I can see where some people whose morals are religiously motivated have a problem. For example, a Catholic is likely to see sex before marriage as a sin, but to an atheist this would be a non-issue.

But generally speaking I think instinctively we're as moral as the next person, be they Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc. We would all see murder as a disgusting act, we would all look down on thieves inmany cases, we would all see rape as an unacceptable crime, and so on.

I don't mind atheism being criticised if the criticism is rightly due, I know I can be critical going in the other direction if I see it as due. But I think it's outright depressing to see people pointing the finger at atheism for a general decline in moral standards.

Any thoughts?

 

Funny: they say atheists don't have morals because their godless, yet the Catholic Church, which is fa from godless, actively protects sex offenders from the right arm of the law.