Why is the morality of the average atheist so much higher than that of the average Christian?

Question

The average Christian cheats on his income tax, lies and deceives his wife, and while an atheist may do these things, he either gets caught less often, or leads a more exemplary life. Of what value is the Christian's religion, if his conduct is below that of the unbeliever?

Answer 1

Without comment on the accuracy of your statement or question, Christianity starts off with the basic assumption that all humans are evil and wicked.

On that basis, Christians are taught that even though they are evil, they are saved by grace and will go to heaven. Not because of their own behavior, but because Jesus paid their admission.

There is no incentive for Christians to obey any known laws or code of ethics. They admit they are evil, but they allow themselves to pretend they are not by hiding behind Jesus.

That is one reason so many people claim to be Christian, it justifies their immorality and requires no penalty for wrongdoing.

Different cults have different rules for being "saved," but they all follow that general doctrine.

Answer 2

I suspect that having to come up with a moral code by one's self instead of just using a pre-existing one might also help as the atheist will have been more like to have thought about why the things we consider immoral are bad and so is less likely to be able to later on justify such immorality.

The lack of confession probably also helps since the atheist has to take responsibility for its actions while the Christian can offload that onto God or Jesus, etc thereby getting away with a lot more.

The really extreme religious people (the Christians that shoot doctors and the Muslims who fly airplanes into buildings) though can be very immoral and really do drag the morality of religious folk down a lot.

Atheists do have a significantly lower divorce rate than Christians so the idea that atheist morality is superior does have some statistical support. It is also known that the states of the US with the higher crime rates tend to be the Southern states with more religion.

Most of the rest of the developed world has both lower crime rates than the US and lower rates of religion.

Answer 3

You might want to consider this thought. Some Christians are not as committed to their faith as others, and may not truly believe even though they profess to be a christian. The same is true of atheists. On their deathbed many atheists cry out to God, and in times of trouble some curse God for their problems. The point is neither Christians nor atheists can have it both ways. Here is another thought to consider. If an atheist is correct and there is no God, there is no harm in living his or her life with "true morality". However, if "true" Christians are correct, atheists are going to be in a "Hell" of a lot of trouble. There is just too much judgment going around from both sides. Don't people have the freedom of choice, and who are we to judge what others choose to believe?

Answer 4

So you went around the entire world and asked all Christians and atheists these questions? "The average Christian cheats on their income taxes, lies and deceives his wife".

So are all Christians Men who cheat on their taxes, lie and deceive their wives? Kind of like someone saying that "the average white male is a pedophile"... "The average American is lazy, greedy and self centered"... or how about this one, "all black people look alike".

None of these examples are of true, but still, people believe them. Should that make them fact?

Answer 5

I'm not sure what you wrote was entirely fair, and I don't think that atheists are more moral than Christians; we're just moral for better reasons. Most of the Christians that I have talked to have claimed that they were moral because they wanted the reward (Heaven) and feared the punishment (Hell), whereas an atheist does good and helps people because we realize that it is the right thing to do, we feel empathy and sympathy, and the thought of helping others makes us feel good. Simple as that.

Answer 6

I have to disagree with your statement. Where are your facts, survey's, etc to back this up? This is your personal opinion and thats okay, you have a right to it....but I have a different opinion and I disagree. Both Christians and athiests cheat on their wives, lie, cheat on taxes etc. But on the flip side, both Christians and athiests lead good moral lives and genuinely respect others, pay their honest share of taxes, help those in need and care about their fellow human beings, not to mention all other groups of people in both categories.

Answer 7

It dosent actually say you have to live a perfect life to be saved, thats why Jesus died but you seem to be lacking in objectivity.
Dont tell me my moral standards missy! you dont even know me, but you are making apparent your obvious prejudice and ignorance.
Still, that is a VERY provocative question and I wouldnt be suprised if you asked it to do that for your own amusement and not really for any rational pursuit.

The argument about Atheists doing good things for better reasons than Christians or any other faith is making a personal judgement about that person based on their faith. Anyone can see thats clearly biased predjudice. Thats because in a perfect world every athiest would come up with a moral code, but not every atheist does, in fact can you think of any who have? The idea that atheist compassion is somehow better than Christian compassion etc is complete ignorance because Christians are told that without compassion and love their deeds are worthless and that God himself will motivate them to do more good than ever they thought imaginable.
So yes indeed, doing good things without compassion is bad but dont try to claim that about a random unidentified Christian on the basis of belief given that this is so, plus its a BIG leap of faith to say atheists will have gone to more effort to do good or will have even thought of a moral code. The hope of heaven makes people who have faith motivated to do good as well, which people seem to forget and make sweeping generalisation about individuals based on completely unreal imaginings and judgements about individuals.

the ppl below only read my answer b4 this, this is my new one having read theirs.

If you have seen a lot of sh*t that Christians have done all I can say is dont judge me by them is what Im getting at. Because that is not an outcome of their faith in action. If the average Christian does all those things like cheat on his wife etc its clearly not as a result of his/her faith!

Answer 8

Did Jesus give up Saturday for us?

Jesus? Christianity? .

Your opinions only, no parroting or C&P from a Bible.


If Jesus died, he could NOT have been God.
Gods do not die? Do they?

If Jesus 'died' on Friday and 'undied' on Sunday, what else besides Saturday was sacrificed?

What's the BIG deal?

If you accept the Jesus sacrifice story, would you also accept this one?

Last Friday, I donated my life savings to Charity.

On Sunday, all the money was returned to me.

I made a big donation to charity. True or False?

Any person that can accept this nonsense is capable of believing anything. Down is up?

Answer 9

Unfair generalization. If you want to annoy the believers there are better ways to do it (and I, for one, would be glad to answer any such question you care to post).

I think that I'm a slightly better person as an atheist than I was as a believer, if only because I no longer shrug off my faults with "oh, well, god will forgive, won't he."

Answer 10

THINK ABOUT IT, IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU ONLY HAVE YOUR CHI TO KEEP RIGHT AND THE ONLY REDEMPTION YOU HAVE IS THE LIVING OF A PURE LIFE THAN YOU ARE MORE AWARE OF YOUR ACTIONS. BUT IF YOU GET AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF GET OUT JAIL FREE CARDS YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO GIVE KNOW THOUGHT TO EFFECTS ON YOUR SOUL,LIFE FORCE, CHI, TE OR WHATEVER ELSE YOU BELIEVE IN. CHRISTIANS SEEM TO THINK THAT LIVING BY ACTION AND DEED LESS IMPORTANT THAN LIVING BY PUFFY CHESTS AND EMPTY WORDS. SEE BUSH FOR EXAMPLE OF A GOOD CHRISTIANS, LOVE KINDNESS AND THINK MY WAY OR YOUR THE NEXT ENEMY ILL KILL.