Are atheists unbiased towards murder?

Question

Do athiests believe that murder is neither good nor bad? From what I understand, the idea of murder being bad comes from religious belief. The idea that humans have a soul, or that only god can determine when someone lives or dies, all stem from religion. Animals do not believe in god, and they show indifference to murder within their own species. Therefore, if religion didn't exist, the idea of murder being evil would not have been created.

So if an atheist thinks murder is evil or bad, aren't they indirectly believing in a higher power?

I like to hear from some atheists on this matter! Let's discuss!

On a second note, (maybe for another question) aren't most laws of man derived from religion? Wouldn't atheists be against most of those?

Ok, I will add some details in response to some of your answers:

Infrared Loaf: Animals do kill their children, you might care to look at this: http://experts.about.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/Animals-kill-young.htm

brand_new_monkey: Interesting point, but that still doesn't answer the question as to why we as humans would think that murder is evil. If that idea arose before religion...why did it?

Cathy: I think that if animals believed in god, my dog wouldn't look so bored lying around the house all day...

gorgeoustxwoman: Thank you for proving to me and to the rest of this community that "common sense" isn't so common. Your heartfelt answer shows that you put a lot of time and thought in before hitting the submit button. Why do I think that you probably sleep with a bible under your pillow? Hope you enjoy your 2 points.

chuck: if my question makes no sense, then your answer leaves me dumbfounded and no further to an answer...How does your answer have to do anything with atheists being indifferent to murder? So Pagan rituals paved the way for religion. Didn't many pagan rituals involve murder and sacrifice?

"Indisputible evidence that a certain belief is wrong"? You know that there are a lot of people on the planet who believe that dinosaurs and humans lived together 6000 years ago. I don't think all the evidence has changed their minds at all.

And your segue to the anti-war Bush hating rhetoric you were just dying to post was unnecessary.

Answer 1

As an atheist I value life and think of it as a most precious thing because it is unique. I do not think it's ok to kill you because I know I'd be stealing something that belongs to you and to all those that love you - your life. You think I get eternity to live , I know you get 100 years or less to live - in which circumstance does a hundred years lost mean more?

I believe that the religious people are more tolerant of killing because they see it as more of a slap on the wrist rather than as a permanent theft. If you really think that people only get what they deserve (heaven, hell, etc) when they die doesn't it seem less evil to kill them than if you think that life is precious and unique?

Maybe this would explain why more murderers believe in God than is representative of the general population?

Answer 2

Your question makes no sense.
Religion began as pagan rituals. People needed a way to explain natural occurrences and leaders needed to control the population. Religion, like humans themselves and our society have evolved as we either needed to, or were forced to with indisputable evidence that a certain belief was wrong.
Religion has in fact been responsible for more wars than any other reason and in the eyes of the aggressed upon even the soldiers are murdered.
Even today our unenlightened president uses words like "insurgents" and "evil doers" to express how he feels about the extremists in the Arab nation as he rallies the extremists in the western world. He may be stupid but don't think for a minute he and his cabinet did not know the effect their words would have on the American people and the world....as we agressed upon a nation rich in oil on the other side of the planet.
You can keep your religion and your God if that is where your beliefs will continue to take the world.
I believe in love and tolerance, do you?

Answer 3

No, Atheists belive that life has value BEYOND religion. Religionists kill via war, execution, etc. An Atheist holds human life as MORE valuable becuase there IS NO AFTERLIFE. A religionist will "kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out." (first uttered during the crusades.)

Morals come from being able to put yourself in another persons place and feel what they are feeling. Religionists consider people not of the faith to be "infidels" or "terrorists" and not human, therefore easy to kill. Also, morals should come from pure intentions. Religionists only do good or bad because of a fear of heaven or hell. They only want the reward (or fear the punishment), and therefore their choices are NOT moral, but situational.

Answer 4

I think you're looking at things a little backwards. I think that religion started in order to put some order and morality in our society, not the other way round. So the need to stop murder and create a moral society evolved into creating religions, and other forms of social laws. The idea that murder is bad did not come from religion. Religion was just one way to implement that idea.
Atheists do not use that set of religious laws in order to think that society needs to be moral. Atheists use common-sense moral laws in order to differentiate between right and wrong. You don't need God to tell you that killing someone is wrong. You have your own morality telling you that.
Atheists, like any other normal person, think that murder is evil, of course.

Answer 5

I don't believe that atheists are unbiased towards murder. They understand when an act of harm has been done. You certainly don't need a religion to tell you this. You could also ask if the religious are unbiased towards murder? A lot of wars have been fought in the name of God, and like it or not a lot of murder takes place in those wars, so wouldn't the odds be in favor of it being the reverse of what you're asking?

Answer 6

religious folks make some very stupid assumptions about Atheists, insulting assumptions even. can not a person respect the lives of other people and the rule of law without believing in an invisible super being?

and no. humans laws are based in basic human behavioral patterns. all animal species have rules of behavior that are instinctively followed.

if you need an invisible celestial overseer to keep an eye on you all the time because you'd be a murderer otherwise ... that's your problem

PS. I'm not an Atheist..

Answer 7

I believe that you are right in that most laws of man came from religion.

But I do not think that atheists are unbiased towards murder anymore then someone that is religious. Killing or not killing someone does not mean that you believe in or not believe in a higher power.

I have to ask you how do you know that animals do not believe in god. ?

Answer 8

The short answer is that atheists are not any more inclined to accept murder than other people. I've edited this answer to provide greater detail as per the expanded question.

BIOLOGICAL ANSWER: Although a handful of rodents do slaughter their own kind, you find relatively few primates that do it wholesale. Chimpanzees, our closest cousins, do not. Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene, explains that self-preservation instinct is extended beyond the individual toward the community at large. First to families, then to distance relatives, then to members of similar species. Among species that do slaughter their own kind, there are sound biological reasons for that, which I won't get into.

This may explain why we have moral qualms about the slaughter of monkeys for scientific experiments, but have no qualms with the slaughter of insects.

SOCIOLOGICAL ANSWER: If compassion and morality were really dependent on religious dogma, how do you explain the work of secular doctors? How do you explain that although atheists make up 10% of the United States population, they account for only 1% of its prison population? Why aren't members of the National Academy of Sciences, 93 percent of whom do not believe in God, known for their murderous behavior? We've all heard that people say God told them to do horrible things, but I've never heard of someone murdering his wife and kids because he became an atheist.

HISTORICAL ANSWER: Although the Aztecs murdered their own kind, they did it in the name of their faith. When the Spanish came and spread genocide through the New World, they most certainly did it in the name of their religion. While the True Believer will invariably reject such actions as "not Christian" (in the case of the crusades or the Inquisition), or "not Islam" (in the case of 9/11) or "not Hinduism" (in the case of the conflict between Pakistan and India), it is undeniable that organized religion contributed to these conflicts.

If atheists are bad, why wasn't Hitler one? Why did he, on April 12 1922, say, "My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against [them]."

You may refer me to Martin Luther King. I would refer you to Ghandi, who Dr. King visited and learned pacifism from. Although King certainly gained inspiration and insight from his Christian tradition, his strategy of pacifism and non-violence was learned from Ghandi, who learned it from Jainism, which is hardly a religion at all.

COMMON SENSE ANSWER: No, atheists are not inclined to murder or be sympathetic to murder.

You may refer to Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian nation for a more exhaustive answer.

Answer 9

There are laws of morality inherent in human beings, with or without religion. Plus if an atheist does get killed, they do not care about it later, so that is pretty unbiased.

Answer 10

really it depends who you talk to . if the idea of murder being bad comes from religion . there are quite a few aethists who believe murder even in war time is bad yet no religion says that in wars there is such a thing as murder .
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yes most laws are derived from from Christian law actually .