are atheists evil or immoral?

Question

It seems to be a fairly common assumption in religious circles that atheists are inherently immoral and I have also seen religious fundamentalists regard atheists as literally demonic. In fact atheists are persecuted in the US on this basis, ranging from not being able to get a job to having their homes burned down.

Many atheists subscribe to the scientific view that humans have evolved to be as they are. From this it is very simple to see that had humans not had cooperative traits that we would never have reached humanity. In fact, all decent morality is as a direct result of evolution. We don't need a riddiculous book from the late bronze age to tell us right from wrong.

how do you perceive atheists, their morality or propensity for evil?

Answer 1

Atheists are of generally high morals, though of course there's a wide range of morality among believers, and many can certainly claim to be as moral as atheists generally are.

Ben, you could have made your point much better if you'd left out the gratuitous - and obviously false - digs against the lifestyles of atheists. In fact atheists in general live lives of high morality - the world would be FAR better off if everyone were to rise to our standards. We do have moral compasses, as is made clear by the generally moral lives we live. You're certainly within your rights to believe that our morality is a "side issue", and of course you're interpreting the Bible correctly when you say that. But with your comments about drug use and adultery you bear false witness against your neighbor, and you don't have to be an atheist to know that's immoral.

Respectfully, I suggest that next time you make this point, you leave out the insults. They undermine you badly.

Answer 2

Gbiaki,

I don’t believe they are neither; although some Christians would tend to think so. It’s just that they have either been raised not to believe in God or Jesus or they haven’t had an experience of the Holy Spirit. Would they admit if they did? A lot of people subscribe to the scientific view that humans have evolved to be as they are – many of our previous scientist believed such and they also believed in Spirituality. Some Christians can turn out to be evil and immoral as well; however, how do we gauge immorality – an issue this country or shall I say conservative religious organizations have tried to force politicians to place a law on for decades.

Fras: You are so correct. When I was studying the History of Christianity, more people where killed in the Name of God than you can shake a stick at. We had to watch this movie entitled “The Mission” with Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons, if you get a chance find a copy and watch it. Truly an example of how some high holy Christian leaders do things behind the name of God.

Candykisses – you make a most excellent point – that God hasn’t touched them yet. God has touched them; they just haven’t recognized or refused to recognize the fact that God touches us every morning. People say they are awaken by an alarm clock. Well do this, take that alarm clock to the cemetery and see how many people get up.

Sugar J – you’re a spiritual person. We are all spiritual beings. If a Christian calls anyone immoral or demonic, they are being judgmental and frankly, that’s Gods job. God deals with us on earth – in the here and now. For example, I was watching one of the college bowl games the other night and the offensive player did such a good job of making the defensive player look as if there was pass interference on the part of the defensive player when it was actually the offensive player that should have been called for pass interference. Well, on the very next play, the quarterback went back to this same wide-receiver and the defense intercepted the ball. Now that’s karma, that’s God paying you back for cheating – the universe never forgets and at times the spanking comes quickly.

Answer 3

They might be but no more or less than anybody else. I think the bias against Atheists is that there is no security blanket when dealing with them. If you do business with a religious person they are not likely to break their commitment to their faith and steal but an Atheist has no guilt strings to pull if they don't pay. They do actually - everybody has a conscience but it is not something associated with them. The other thing working against them is that the choice to reject God is seen as poor judgement so they are denied positions of authority on that basis. They will have to work harder to attain the same respect. Now this may surprise you but in Australia the opposite is true. The Christians are the minority and most people are Atheists in society despite the label they wear.In a factory of almost 5000 I was one of 7 born again Christians and the scrutiny was intense. I did win respect and climb the social ladder but like I said it was harder and took longer. All the best to you. I don't think you are evil. Good luck convincing others.

Answer 4

If you define "immoral" by behavior--people who do bad things--then atheists are no more inherently immoral than other groups. They do not steal more, murder more, drive drunk more often, or resort to acts of violence any more... in fact, being of an intellectual bent, they might resort to acts of violence less often, but I have no statistics to back me up. So no, not immoral. Only if you define "evil" as "the absence of God" can you define them as evil--and that's actually a pretty rare definition in this day and age, when we reserve "evil" for mass murderers like Hitler. Also, that would be "the absence of believing in a Judeo-Christian God," which I don't think defines evil at all. My version of "God" imbues all things in this world, including the rocks and the cars and the people, even the atheists, though they are very welcome to not believe it as it's no skin off my nose or God's.

So short answer? No. Instead, I see people who *label* atheists (or any other religious system that doesn't do physical harm to people) as "evil" or "immoral" as simply naive and impolite. And I'm not labeling a "group" there; I'm labeling a behavior.

Answer 5

some are, some are not. You are going for a general statement. It does not work that way.
Edit, sorry theo, I did not see your answer before posting.
Anyway, even if I don't believe in any of the religious texts I still have to deal with the laws, police and lawyers. If I don't like the laws I can attempt to get them changed by voting reps in who I hope think like me, or by legal challenges in court. I might evendecide to ignore the laws and gamble on not getting caught. The risk calculations are pretty harsh. Not usuially worth the gamble.

Answer 6

People are not all the same and we DO NOT have to think the same. If you think about it we are all humans. I like to take a more realistic view on life and a more hands on approach. If you think about it we are the only ones who make our decisions no one else does and if you think someone else makes our decision you are fooling yourself because you know your the one who decides to do things. People who don't agree with that are just looking for an excuse to hide behind something that is not there. Stop putting others down isn't that what you beleive in being nice to all. Why can't people just wkae up and take control of their own life and stop relying on something that doesn't even exsist. When we started we had rocks and sticks and the sun what happended to that. Oh yea a group became dominating and pushed their views on everyone else.

Answer 7

In my opinion the morality of atheits is mostly higher. How many hyppocrates do you find among "believing" people? You won't find them in atheits. You even mentioned that they have difficulties to get a job or their houses are burned down. Is this the christian way? No thank you!

You are right atheits don't need a book to go by. They are able to make up their on mind on certain things. Being an atheist does not even means not believing in anything. But do I have to believe in Adam and Eve to be a good person?

Atheists are more open and respectful to all kind of religions than it is the opposite. Atheists also not fighting any "holy wars". Does not this alone make them good people?

Answer 8

I'm not much of a religious person. I don't know if that makes me athiest or agnostic because I never really looked in to those things. I live a pretty moral and decent life. If a christian calls me immoral or demonic, that doesn't mean it's true.

Answer 9

i have considered planned strawmen that were basically trolling, like all of your examples. i have also considered strawmen that gave the impression to be through invalid assumptions, non secular indoctrination, or ordinary lack of know-how. If i elect to respond to one of those question i attempt to describe the incorrect reasoning that delivered about the straw guy argument, and take a check out to circumvent such reasoning myself. If I modern-day adequate sound arguments, possibly i can coach through party. each and every now and then i imagine the reason would were a valid question. as an party, the question about blind faith in naturalism will be valid from a solipsist viewpoint. i'd opt for to illustrate that atheism isn't tied to a philosophy, that it does not require faith, that when you consider that naturalism is demonstrable it also calls for no faith, and that solipsism is an impractical international view.

Answer 10

I pick

C. Neither of the above, as a group. YMMV.


There may be evil atheists, there may be immoral atheists - they don't get much press, so I wouldn't know.