Atheists-How do you know what is right and wrong?

Question

You can't really say "my conscience" because that would suppose something bigger than ourselves telling us what to and not to do and that would reveal another chink in the armor for evolution. Also, since you don't realize that God exists, where do these morals come from?

Answer 1

"My conscience" implies nothing of the sort. The ability to make a distinction between "help" and "harm" doesn't at all necessitate the existence of "something bigger". It merely proves that I have a human mind and a human psyche and am capable of abstract and logical thinking.

I would've said more, but I think the rest of the answerers have pretty thoroughly covered anything I might've said.

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

Your question "reveals another chink" in the armor of those who believe in god and divine beings. You suppose that morals must be instilled by a supreme being. Is it really so inconcievable to you that maybe human beings are born with morals? that maybe, as a social species, "morals" actually once served a SURVIVAL purpose? Observe a community of chimps... they are also a social species. Notice they don't kill each other, they don't steal from each other, etc etc. But I thought "god" only cared about humans? How come chimps exhibit more or less the same "morals" that we do? More to the point, A CONSCIENCE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EVOLUTION. And a conscience does not automatically imply a supernatural being.

Anyway, to answer your question. I asses a situation and I make a decision based on how I feel the situation should be handled, how I feel about what my solution means, and its future implications... call it what you will, but it is in no way "god" based.

And I apologize if I seemed harsh earlier, but you obviously are not open to other view-points (a position I infer from the wording of your question)

Answer 4

CONSCIENCE: 1 a : the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good b : a faculty, power, or principle enjoining good acts c : the part of the superego in psychoanalysis that transmits commands and admonitions to the ego.

1. Notice that god isn't in the equation.

2. You didn't chink the armor of evolution. In order to do that, you would have to disprove THOUSANDS of scientific observations, tests and RESULTS (proof).

3. Why do you claim that the only possiblity of "morals" could be from YOUR god. How do you know that humans weren't genetically engineered by space aliens and "pre-programmed" with "morals"? How do you know that Ra, the sun god didn't make us. How do you know that the hindu gods didn't create us?

(Please provide the evidence that proves YOUR god was in charge and not the 100's of OTHER gods worshiped throughout human history)

Answer 5

society. Basically if its accepted in society, then it could be considered moral. Not to say that it will always be moral. Just look at slavery. The Catholic Church in Spain actually supported slavery. But now its considered immoral to enslave a person or persons. It depends on your view of morals.

Of course you can argue against this with examples such as murder or Cannibalism or something like that. You could chalk this up to "conscience" (which btw doesn't imply that evolution is somehow wrong because it could involve God or a conscience) however, people do murder and cannibalize others for survival, which is instinct, a survival mechanism. But bonding together in a pack with others of your species is just a survival mechanism, roaming in packs or swimming in schools, to survive predators. You can't bond together if you murder or cannibalize others of your species for you will never be trusted. So basic morals is based on survival skills but any moral can overridden by a need to survive.

Answer 6

Oh boy. Here's the thing - why should anyone assume that christianity or a belief in god (of any religion) gives or lends you morals?

After seeing this question out here nearly every day (sigh), I started reflecting on my childhood. I was raised catholic. NOWHERE in those teachings - not in church or in CCD, did I learn anything moral. Sure, there are the 10 commandments. But what do they really tell you?

Don't cheat on your spouse. Don't steal. Don't be jealous. (Funny, I can't remember them all!) But say that's the gist. It tells you specific things not to do. It doesn't say ANYTHING about not irritating your co-workers, or giving to charity, or any of the many things that make up right and wrong.

So I can guarantee you I didn't learn that stuff from religion. Some of it I learned from my parents. Some of it is just a natural, inborn part of me. Some of it is fear of the reprisals of society.

You may try to take the conscience out of the picture by giving it another definition, but that is incorrect. Our conscience is us.

Answer 7

My conscience. Its nothing more than an emergent behavior of my brain, a combination of my capacity for rational thinking from the frontal cerebral cortex and of aversion/attraction emotional response from the brain stem (ie: empathy). The conscience is NOT the voice of God. The fact that there seems to be a widespread, but not perfectly spread, inherant tendancy towards morality in the human race is actually evidence of evolution, as one would suppose a perfect God would have given EVERYONE a sense of morality, and some people are rather lacking in this.

I do not do things to people that make them hurt because I can imagine how I would feel if they did that thing to me.

And every single culture, religious or no, had the concept of the golden rule. In fact, only two cultures or religions phrase it even remotely differently.

Popular: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Buddhist (Negation): Do not do to others what you would not have done to you.
Church of Satan (Reactive): Do unto others as they have done unto you.

Answer 8

For what ever reason they do not accept the Moral Law Giver. So forth they can make up their own standards.
When I read the Bible before I invited the Holy Spirit in my heart, there were a lot of things that I thought that did not make sense. I believed in Jesus, but I did not have faith in Him. I thought that I can pick and choose what I believe and what I do not believe to be true.

I cannot expect these atheists to understand the Bible, because they do not believe in Jesus nor have faith. I rely on God's understanding. Luckily I do not have to understand Him totally and exhaustively to run some errands for Him. I love to serve my Lord.

Atheists think that they know what is right and what is wrong, because they do not seek to be with God after this life here nor they want to be with Him. So they will not. That is about the free will, you know. They might be citizens in good standing by this society...and they might be really intelligent, compassionate, loved by people...and they might claim that they know the right, but we will see. That is why I do not want to rely on my own understanding of what is right, because I do not want to take a change that I am going to be separated from my Lord in eternity. As we have a lot of choices_right and wrong- here on earth, there are only two choices what comes to eternity...and my right choice is to be with God...luckily I do not get to heaven by doing and knowing all the rights...I get much more than I deserve, and that is why my Lord is right for me.

Answer 9

While I disagree with the idea of Right and Wrong, I will respond to this from the standpoint of differentiating between helpful and harmful.

Human beings understand that there are actions that will be helpful or harmful. It's obvious that we don't want ourselves or our loved ones hurt, and we can extrapolate that this is true for others as well. Therefore, the idea of avoiding actions that can harm others is a commonly held, rationally achievable tenet.

Doing what is helpful is a bit trickier, because the ramifications of help can lead to dependence, which is often harmful, or self-righteousness, which is also often harmful. Being helpful requires either a negotiation and mutually agreement regarding the help or a determination that the person cannot negotiate and we are to be helpful without their assent.

Determining that God is the arbiter of right and wrong can actually lead to greater harm. For example, there is little doubt that Gay marriage would be helpful in society: It would lead to more stable relationships, would promote quality health care because of increased insurance coverage, would avoid costly legal maneuvers needed to secure couples' medical and inheritance rights, and would ease anxiety within the couple regarding their legal safety. However, because of citations in the Bible (said to be from God) that homosexuality cannot be condoned, many Christians are preventing this helpful course with nothing to support their objections beyond the statements in the Bible.

This is one example of theistic ethics leading to greater harm. There are countless others that come from all variety of religions, including slavery, subjugation of women, child abuse, murder of witches and other outside-the-faith groups, feudalism, and business restrictions, to name only a few.

Answer 10

I see this question often and it is really getting on my nerves. Why would you assume because a person does not believe in a supreme being that they have no morals? Are you completely void of common sense? Morals have nothing to do with religion! Jesus Christ, John Wayne Gacy went to church! Did they not have parents who taught them right from wrong? Are they not much more intelligent than you, evidently, and use common sense? Next time think before you ask such a stupid question.