Atheism and morality

[MrBubbles]

dib8rman said:

MrBubbles said:

the point didnt seem to be that stalin was killing people because he was atheist.  just that he was an atheist and did that.   which is the topic.  atheism and morality.   stalin being an atheist and showing a lack of morals is a perfectly fine argument for him to make.

What? So your saying because he was Atheist and commited murder that Atheists have morals in line with mass murder or genocide?

Dude, Stalins morals were fine, if the Russians had won that is. I remember a bit of the cold war, I remember how much the Russians hated England and the US anything not Russian, the US hated the Russians almost as much.  This hate came from Nationalism, a conflict of values.

Here's a touch of history without any bias.

1. Stalin replaced Lenin and was much more brutal than Lenin.

2. Stalin wanted to keep USSR as one country and saw the Ukraine as a place of potential issues in that agenda.

3. Stalin Captured and or killed Scholars, Artists, Culturalists and Religous members (Around 6000 of them) The reason he did this was to null media and begin his propoganda machine. This had nothing to do with morals, this was about defence, his nationalistic pride. It's the equivilent of a burglar getting into your house and you using deadly force. Maybe this burglar had no intent of harming anything at all who knows. The morals of that situation isn't up for arguement, it's the same thing except USSR was the house and Stalin used deadly force on a new value system.

4. Stalin starved about 6 million people (I think, can't really remember) Then said you kill 1 man it's a tragedy but kill a million and it becomes statistic. Out of context that sounds immoral but in context morals have little to do with that.

Judging his actions from an arm chair just seems like a waste though, what he did was atrocious to the average person but to the people carrying it out, he did it for the betterment of the USSR the Russians carried this sentiment even to the 80's.

Now it's easy to point the finger at one guy but he had a whole population that agreed with what he was doing to the Ukraine, this is the source of the answer to "why" the answer is Nationalism. Not morals and definetly not Atheism.

my position is that there are not many atheists that can be held up as examples of good morals(even two that someone brought up appear to be only agnostics that atheists seem to be essentially hijacking).  So if people can only name "bad" atheists then people will assume that atheists arent moral.  With more prominent clearly upstanding atheists then people wouldnt generalize atheists as having no morals or being immoral.

the other person brought up high profile atheists who do not have a good morals.  i would probably argue that those individuals are amoral.  Someone mentioned that atheists actually have a better moral code, so i guess he believes those people are immoral and essentially evil(since they know right and wrong but are willfully choosing to act wrongly).  I couldnt tell you whether or not either feel it reflects poorly on atheists as a whole.

In my personal experience, most of the atheists ive known (and no im not saying all atheists are this way) tend to be bitter and hate god, rather than reaching the decision that god doesnt exist through a logical thought process.  It doesnt even seem a rational position to me.  I can understand an agnostic "god probably doesnt exist" point of view... but to be so absolutely positive about something unknowable...(even religious people can claim personal experience that affirms their belief,  but what situation would someone have to prove that He doesnt exist)

I hope this answers your question.