What's your opinion on atheists?

Question

I'm just wondering because someone I know recently said that:

"A strong atheist has no moral values and basically eliminates rules from their life completely, just goes sleeping around with whomever they wish. A weak atheist might just not understand the concept of God and would therefore become psychopathic."

I want to know what others believe.

WOW! I never expected to get so many answers! Thank you so much everyone! I'm an atheist myself and when that person said that I was really shocked. It's nice to know that most of the world doesn't think like that, these answers really provided me closure.

I can't decide between so many great answers - so I'm calling a vote :)

Answer 1

Uh........ what kind of atheists does that person know? The person you know WAY off base in their assumptions.

Atheism doesn't necessitate a total lack of morality and restraint. Atheism is simply "without belief in a god or gods". The rest is left up to the individual. There is no one way to be for atheists. We're not all the same.

For instance, I'm an atheist and I don't rampage across the land, morals thrown to the wind, screwing every warm body I can find. I'm married, have a child, work a part time job and am an altogether decent person according to the people I know. Never smoked, never drank, never done drugs, the only person I will ever sleep with again is my husband, and I've never committed a crime. I follow the laws of the land and the dictates of my own conscience.

I BELIEVE that the person you've been talking to needs to seriously reconsider taking such negative stereotypes to heart.

Answer 2

So let me get this straight. Because I don't believe in God I should be out here running around doing pretty much whatever and whoever I want? And if I am weak, hell, I can go on a killing rampage any moment. Why didn't someone tell me this a whole lot sooner? I could have gone a whole different direction in life. I guess I could start now. But I would have to ask my wife of 14 years and my 8 year old twins first. Yes, I was married for 6 years before I had children. Wait! Wait! That cant be true, I have no morals.
I go to work everyday and come home every evening. I help my kids with their homework. I eat dinner, sometimes with my family, and sometimes not. We all sleep at night, just fine. Just like you.
Sounds like an ordinary life to me. Not psychopathic. It sounds like most people in the world. No matter what they believe or don't believe. I live my life , just like you, one day at a time.

Morality is a matter of how YOU view it. It is a matter of opinion. Not anyone Else's opinion but your own. You may do something that others think is immoral, but there are others who see what you did as moral. Because someone says something you did is immoral, doesn't make it true. Your morals are your own. It is up to you to decide what is morally correct, not society.

Answer 3

Every human being is born atheist. We are also born amoral and apolitical. The concept of theism is learned, as are morals and politics and a million other debatable things

Being "a"theistic simply means you are without god beliefs. It doesn't make you evil. A person can be amoral (have no moral beliefs) and still never harm a fly. A person can be apolitical and still contribute to a society. Being without a belief system doesn't make you an enemy of the rest of the believing world. This is what religious people can't get through their collective thick skulls. They feel so threatened by people who don't believe in god because for them, the idea of NOT BELIEVING is utterly frightening to THEM. They project their own fears of being atheistic onto others.

Meantime, atheists rarely engage in trying to make theists stop believing. We simply say, "here is why we don't believe. Look at the evidence (or lack thereof) and make up your own mind." I've never felt threatened by a theist, although I do sometimes wish I could let them stand in my shoes for a day and see that the world, and life, is no different when you don't believe. I guess I do feel a touch of pity for theists because for me, atheism was like dropping the final veil of childhood and become a truly mature human. Now *I* am accountable for everything I do and say.

Either way, as an atheist, I don't engage in immoral behavior (can't say the same of many of my theistic friends) and I certainly don't need god or religion to tell me what is right and wrong.

Answer 4

That person has a moral problem - specifically, a willingness to be transparently dishonest when he or she thinks that dishonesty will forward his or her political agenda.

Atheists are in general moral, probably more moral as a group than are believers (though of course it's individuals who matter, and there is a range of morality in each group).

Atheists obviously understand the "concept of God" better than do believers - that's why we're atheists. I'd think that even the slowest people would understand that.

I would like to be in contact with that person about how best to go about sleeping with whomever I wish, though. Let him know that I'd like to begin with Monica Bellucci, and if he can arrange for Linda Fiorentino for the second night, that'd be great.

Answer 5

The madman who is predicting a nuclear attack in the U.S. is very much a Christian. Christians are capable of madness on the Caligula level. Just ask the followers of Jim Jones, or the victims of the Insurrection, or those poor women who were burned at the stake for supposedly practicing witchcraft, or my son whose dog Christians poisoned to death because we were non-believers. Psychosis is a medical disease partly described as a "break from reality". Nothing is more real than the craters on the moon But, when Galileo tried to show the Pope the craters on the moon through a spyglass, the Pope essentially said in public newspapers, "It does not matter what is really there. What matters is what I has the head of this church SAYS is there." People who follow religions are either psychotic or feeble-minded. I actually feel sorry for them and wish they had a chance to escape their unawareness.

Answer 6

What an absolute load of rubbish. I am a christian myself but I don't equate moral values with God, and lack of moral values with the supposed non-existence of God. The idea that people not believing in God are amoral devils is precisely the kind of fanaticism we are supposed to be trying to quell in terrorist groups.

In fact, my moral values and most people's diverge quite significantly from the bible. Or we would all be homophobes. Secular morality is much more mature than religious morality. The world be a chaos of barbarism and bloodbaths if we followed the laws set down at the beginning of the old testament. I really don't see why a person has to believe in God to follow a moral system.

The bulk of modern moral principles date back to the teachings of Greek philosophers, who did not have a bible to hand.

Answer 7

I'm an atheist. So, just to clarify, not believing in God is a choice we make; it's not because we don't understand its concept.

Also, I have more moral values than a lot of believers. Do you know what philosophy is? Well, I'm not a philosophers, but I do try to think about life and its meaning, and how to live my life ina just way. Also, we have the law to tell us what we are allowed to do.

Ex: People from the mafia are often (always?) Christians. Does that make them good person?

Knowing the meaning of "good" is not enjoyed only by believers. I have a brain and try to use it. And the reason I don't believe in the existence of a god is not because I think it's impossible that someone who is more intelligent than me exists. On the contrary: I don't see why someone would have taken the trouble to create something as "insignificant" as a human being. Look at the size of the universe and how long the earth exists, and compare it with the size of a human being and how long humans have been on earth... I think it's the opposite: believers can't bear the idea of being insignificant!

Answer 8

Perhaps you ought to point out to your friend that Christians make up about 75% of the US population and 75% of the US prison population. Atheists make up about 10% of the US population... but they only make up 0.2% of the US prison population. That means that an atheist is 50 TIMES LESS likely to be incarcerated than a Christian. I can think of two possible things that might account for this disparity:

1. Atheists of a higher ethical and moral caliber than Christians, and thus do not do the same kinds of nasty things that land so many Christians in jail; or,

2. Atheists are, overall, a lot smarter than Christians, and thus less likely to get caught in the course of their transgressions.

Take your pick. (Personally, I think its a little bit of both.)

Answer 9

Why does it seem like that anyone that has a "Grandma" in their name always has judgemental, fundamentalist opinions?

Anyways, it is logical to say that just as moral and amoral Christians exist, so do moral and amoral Atheists. The only common denominator between Atheists is a belief in the non-existence of God/Gods. I would have to say though, that moral Atheists would have stronger morals than moral Christians because they're moral for personal reasons, not because they expect a reward when they die.

Answer 10

Whether one believes in God or not does not have a lot to do with moral fiber. There are Atheists that live a completely moral life guided by the Law written on their hearts, (conscience) without accepting the God who wrote it there.

[Jer 31:33] But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.