Why do Atheists have any morals?

Question

If its true that the strongest survive and there is nothing after we die. Then why Not cheat on your wife/husband . Indulge in any and all sexual indulgance or any thing else you get off to. Anything less is really hypocritical. Family honor or tradition means nothing really if this is all there is.

I just wanted to ad to Atheists that have trouble understanding, I stated immoral acts that are ok as far as the law is concerned. You wont go to jail for cheating on your spouse. or just living like a selfish jerk .so one more time,,,, any real answers?

Answer 1

You're right. Something larger than themselves is guiding them. They're just too dumb to figure out that it's God.

Answer 2

Again I face the mountains of misinformation. Sigh.

Your statements that "the strongest survive" and "there is nothing after we die" are correct. This is certainly what most of us believe.

However, to then make the illogical jump to "why not cheat..." doesn't make any sense. The faithful do not have a monopoly on morality. They didn't even invent it. Morality is the natural evolution of rules to better help people live in groups. People don't (as a rule) steal or murder because we have evolved as a communal species and those behaviors make surviving as a group very difficult. This is certainly not to say that these things don't happen. They happen every minute of every day, bu this has nothing to do with whether or not there is a god.

Most of us atheists are not opportunistic brutes living by the law of the jungle. We recognize that this law exists, but see this as all the more reason to try to live above it.

Answer 3

Atheism and hedonism aren't synonymous.

To do what's right just for fear of punishment is to have the morals of a child. If someone only does the right thing because he is afraid of god's punishment, that person isn't being moral at all.

Morality is about doing the right thing, even if men and gods are giving you their back. Morality is about the individual conscience, is about doing the right thing even if the rules of society or laws say otherwise. You can do an action that might violate the laws (even the religion laws) but that can be morally right.

Every act can be measure in its moral implications, when someone fully understand the moral implications of every act and is capable to do the right thing just because it's the right thing, then that's a moral person. Someone who does "right" just because fear of divine punishment, is closer to immorality than morality, even if the society might get benefited with such "fear". The Ring of Gyges story in Plato's The Republic explains this concept quite well.

All an atheist needs to be a moral person is to understand the implications of his actions. For some, atheists are (arguably) more morally aware than religious people. I say that moral people come in every belief or "brand", immorality and morality are everywhere.

Answer 4

Why so angry at Atheists? Afraid that you are wrong? I am ruled by subconscious morals that everyone has. It is not hypocritical to not indulge in everything and anything I might want, indulging leads to weakness and then I might not be fit enough to survive. Theists of all religions cheat on spouses, hire hookers, and cheat their way into power if that is what they want, religion does not make one good, and atheism does not mean without morals.

Answer 5

Because humans are social creatures and they need to live in society to survive. Every society has rules that, if broken, cause the person to suffer some kind of negative consequences.

Besides, atheists can have ethics and morals, and a philosophy of not harming others based on just being a decent person, not based on fear of divine retribution or reward.

Just as many religious people do harm as non religious people, so obviously believing in God doesn't make anyone a better person.

Answer 6

Good question, my answer is : some do cheat,lie, indulge in all things. most of us though seem to have a pre -birth intelligence that gives us guidance, along with learned traditions. And living in a society that that permits many freedoms seems to open the doors to everything under the sun. Previous generations in this country had stricter morals and kept a lot of things in private and controlled.

Answer 7

Some obviously do those things, just as some theists do those things.

For those who don't, it's the same reasons theists don't - love of a spouse, shame, regret, fear of losing a loved one, etc. Fear of retribution from god plays only a secondary role in the behavior of theists.

It's merely your assumption that honor and tradition are meaningless if there are no magic men in the sky. That's quite a non sequitur. But even if that were true, hypocricy is also just a human ideal that would be meaningless under your assumptions.

Answer 8

First of all, not all atheists are people who believe in Darwin's theory of evolution. The idea of atheism is not to be like a religious person and simply replace Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism or Christianity with another system of beliefs like evolution.

Secondly, many people are capable of ethical behavior for its intrinsic value. They do not need to act morally because there is a pay off like going to heaven. In other words, there are people who do not cheat on their mate or lie or steal because it is more civil and humane to be this way. Society functions better if we treat people with respect and are honest.

Thirdly, some people do not need to scared into acting a certain way. They do not need to threatened with hell to be honest or virtuous. And so, there are are reasons for being virtuous, honest and noble that have nothing to do with god or religion -any religion.

Ethics and morality came before Christianity and if you would care to have a look at ancient Greek philosophy or Confucianism or for that matter numerous other ethical theories, you will realise that it makes sense to have a code of ethics even if there is a god or not.

Don't assume I am an atheist. You are simply wrong and have not studied the subject seriously enough to qualify to write off thousands of years of thought.

People need to have rules in a society if it is to be civil. An this is with or without a god.

Answer 9

You're right that there is nothing after we die. But I disagree that it's hypocritical. There are different kinds of "immortality". There is family, reputation, etc... regardless of the existence of an afterlife. It depends on your personal concept of the meaning of life.

I happen to agree with you more each day, though, that it's surprising that I don't indulge myself more in completely selfish acts. I suppose I'm "programmed" internally and socialized too much to engage in such acts. But there's really no reason not to.

Answer 10

Wrong. It's precisely because this life is the only one I'm gonna get, that I need to live as well as I can. And since that means living with other people, I need to treat them properly.

I got my morals from my mother; her instruction in its entirety was:

"Don't bite your sister. Except in self-defense. You don't want to make her worse than she is already." (Naturally, my sister got the same advice in her turn.)

The grownup translation, of course, is Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You. And I follow it, not because some guy-in-the-sky is frowning over my shoulder, but because it works; it keeps peace in the home, in the neighborhood, and in the world.

And the moral is: If You Don't Want People To Bite You, Then You Know What Not To Do, Dummy

Answer 11

Bloody hell man, get a backbone. Are you so devoid of self-will or worth that you cannot believe people actually want to be friendly and help others? Why does some stupid idea of God have to be behind things?

Again, a terrible question thats treats us Atheists as some form of Aliens

P.S.Family Honour and Tradition are dead ideas. Honour has brought us wars, its a stupid pig-headed idea. Tradition? Well, if tradition had its way, women would be seen and not heard, ethnic groups would be menial workers and, lo and behold, modern medicine would nto exist