Atheism and morality

[Killiana1a]

ithis said:

Killiana1a said:

The Fury said:

highwaystar101 said:

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, but to an atheist this would be a non-issue.

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?

Most atheist morals are based on religious backgrounds. It is in religious text that our guidelines for decency are defined and that is where they come from in modern society. Killing, stealing, covetting your neighbours hard working donkey and others are seen as wrong based on those teachings.

What atheism has done is allowed people to 'move on' from laws and teachings that don't make sense and are outdated in modern society, sex before marriage is one that stands out a lot as well as same sex relationships.

I believe atheism comes from a greater understanding of the world which has happened in the last few hundred years. Science has help with this but also the indiscretions of religions that people have also moved away. Atheism should be though open to as much criticism as any faith. The morals might be seen as looser in atheism but some of these things have been going on for thousands of years, they are just more obvious in the information age.

I have to quote this post because it is so damn good.

I don't know about that. Sure, it seams that, as good morals are outlined in the religious text, which are ancient, and since the better part of the population goes to church, good morals come from the religious texts in modern society. I however argue that society and common sense dictate a community's good morals, which happen to coincide with the old religious texts, since common sense was mostly the same back then when societies had morals and then wrote them down in a book. This is visible in the changes to the guidelines for decency that appear in the religious texts where there was a conflict with common sense. These changes happen more easily the more people are exposed to information and other cultures. Sure, religions are extremely powerful and influential, and many battle these changes constantly, still they happen. 

I would at least Google "church attendance rates US and Europe" before making the statement "the better part of the population goes to church." Here is what I found:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_chu_att-religion-church-attendance

US is at 44%; Canada is at 38%; United Kingdom 27%.

The data is from the World Values Survey and like all other polls, it has a margin of error that may or may not tell us the whole story. Yet, it is data and going off of numbers is more persuasive than going off of your gut instincts when an audience is around.

I do not contest your common sense and religious texts as it applies to society and morality. I myself was raised in the Christian faith and attended youth group all the way up through high school.

What I contest are blanket statements such as "the better part of society" because where I will interpret as you saying over 50% of the population goes to church on a weekly or monthly basis, others will interpret as you are saying "the better part of society" as something else even up to the point of snubbing those non church goes as fundamentally bad, rotten individuals.

What I will say that is just as controversial, but is rooted in my personal experience with atheists, is that they do have a religion. Environmentalism. These atheists I have met tend to be urban, highly educated and have deep rooted beliefs about environmentalism bordering on religious fanaticism. They are not only believers in global warming as all man made, but they eschew cars for bicycles and mass transit because it protects "Mother Earth."

Nevermind the fact that these atheistic enviros ride a bicycle as if the rules of the road and state law does not apply to them. So long as they are not driving a car, then they feel entitled to ride their bicycle blowing through red lights, stop signs, crosswalks, and using illegal fixed gears.

So yes, there is some morality among these atheistic enviros based entirely on their lack thereof of their carbon footprint in comparison to those in their community, but they are God when they are on their bicycles because they believe so long as they are not burning a fuel to power their mode of transport, they have the right to ride the way they want to.

Too bad society and US state laws state otherwise explicity. The same rules that apply to cars apply to bicycles because they are both motor vehicles. One is powered by gasoline, the other by human. Both share the road and the law applies to them equally.