How do you distinguish a good(have good moral) atheist from the nasty ones?

Question

i mean here in yahoo asnwer.
ive encountered a good atheist here. his name is edsawyer.he earned my respect.

but im not sure if hes atheist. correct me if im wrong please.

Answer 1

Same question can be asked about theists.. believing in a higher power certainly does not automatically make someone a better or moral person.

Answer 2

If an athiest has good 'morals', he's a bad athiest. He may be a compliant member of society. He may choose to go along with the standards of conduct those around him adopt. But not because he has to (for he knows there is no real universal morality), but because he chooses to. His only reason to not kill you is that he will suffer consequences--not because he believes it's wrong. He only answers to man, because who else is there to answer to?

The scary thing is what will the nice atheist do if he can get away with it? Ironically, you don't need to worry about that too much. Because even though philosophically the atheist has no morality to restrict him unless he allows, most don't function by the true definition. They will still say things like, "Well, even if I could get away with it, I would never do that because it would be wrong." The 'good atheist' you meet is good because he embraces a universal right and wrong, a common sense of fairness, justice, civility and kindness--and that makes him a bad atheist, or at least an inconsistent one.

Answer 3

If you already know a person to be an atheist ask for their opinion on believers and their belief systems. The language they choose to use will invariably give you a huge clue about their own moral compass. More often than not, if they use bad language they are on the way at least to becoming badly behaved people. And that means eventually a moral compass gone astray.

Answer 4

In my experience, as an atheist is someone who has clearly thought about what they will believe, instead of just accepting the crap he was given by his parents, he is more likely to be honest (have good morals).

In fact, I can honestly say that I have never met a nasty atheist. Plenty of very nasty christians (and other religions) though.

Answer 5

If we could devise such a test, would we be able to specifically for someone who is an atheist. Could such a test apply to others as well.

Say we put someone in a room with a 50 dollar bill, would his or her action be evidence of morals?

What is the definition of morality even? Some modern religions make permissible polygamy, others have this as a tenent of being wrong.

First we must define what is moral. Then such a test must be devised for people both religious and irreligious.

Answer 6

People think being atheist means being evil or devilish. Thats not the case. True atheists think God and Devils are just fables.They think man just lives and dies ( without after life and blabla) , so they work towards making the life on earth better. You can recognise a true atheist to be very sensible, practical, self assured( it takes a lot of mental strength to depend completely on urself emotinally )They are also not fundamentalists. People think they are anti God. But these people search more for God than others, because they cannot blindly beleive stories or fables told to them. They need strong facts to convince them about God, but unfortunately they dont find any. So the turn atheists.

Answer 7

That's easy. How do they behave? Is their atheism an excuse to hurt themselves or other people? That is no better than any religious fanatic doing the same. Do they force their lack of belief on you? Again, no better than the religious fanatic. The key thing to remember is that it doesn't matter what your belief system is, you are judged by your actions and the result, as well we all should be.

Answer 8

Hey, there are millions of nasty religious folks too....in fact, there are more religious folks with bad morals than atheists with bad morals....

Answer 9

No distinguishing according to the religious people, you not "saved" your considered without any morals.

Answer 10

I am an athiest. Trust me.

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate them.

--------

In choosing who is a good person and who is a nasty one, I would advise you not to consider their religious beliefs at all. Trust me - it's not going to help in the least.