Atheists: From Where Do You Get Your Ideas of Morality?

Question

If you don't believe that there is a God who gave the principles of right and wrong then, from where do you get your sense of morality?

No smart aleck answers, this is an honest non-sarcastic question.

Answer 1

I have wondered this myself! God gave us some basic guidelines and without them, where would we have gotten our morals and values? Even non-believers can't seriously think it's okay to murder someone or sleep around...but why would it be wrong without God?

Answer 2

Gah, we are going to have to do this with EVERY single christian on the planet aren't we. If some of the atheists here flame you to the ground then please forgive them: for they have answered this question every hour for as long as they have been on here.

Conscience is a faculty or sense that leads to feelings of remorse when we do things that go against our moral precepts, or which informs our moral judgment before performing such an action. Such feelings are not intellectually reached, though they may cause us to 'examine our conscience' and review those moral precepts, or perhaps resolve to avoid repeating the behaviour.

While morality is sometimes described as 'innate' in humans, the scientific view is that a capacity for morality is genetically determined in us, but the set of moral values is acquired, through example, teaching, and imprinting from parents and society. Different cultures have very different moral value systems. Moral values, along with traditions, laws, behaviour patterns, and beliefs, are the defining features of a culture.

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Current statistics:
PW : 33/2.1 billion
EIT: 34/2.1 billion
WSM: 12/2.1 billion
MWG: 22/2.1 billion
WAS: 10/2.1 billion

(Pascal's Wager, Evolution Is a Theory, Why are there Still Monkeys, Morality Without God, Why are Atheists in this Section, resp. in answers against total estimated number of christians)

Answer 3

Actually, thats a good question. You may know the answer already because it is inside you. Kindness and morality are a requirement for human survival. In fact,most animals on the earth require a group effort to survive. Cows herd together to protect themselves, fish school, birds fly together, etc. These are evolutionary tactics derived from years of natural selection rather than mere chance. The cows that strayed got eaten. The fish that drifted off were swallowed by sharks. The birds that went awol failed to migrate.

It's in our nature to be good. A baby out of the womb loves it's mother and she loves it. Not because a deity says to love it.

What you might not see is that claiming God as a reason for doing right undermines humanity. It really is the same as stating that you would go on a killing spree if it weren't for the fear of God holding you back.

You already know the 10 commandments. Check out Exodus 31:12-15 NIV. It states that we should keep the Sabbath holy and instructs us (twice) to kill those who work on the sabbath. Human morality prevents us from following through on this commandment.

You might notice that if you question your faith in front of a clergy member they have no other choice than to fold you back into the flock. It's their job.

Read Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation

Answer 4

This gets asked quite a lot. Long story short.....most atheists believe that people are naturally born with a sense of empathy. We see the pain of others and how it is caused...and realize we don't want to suffer their fate. Most of us live by what christians call the golden rule. As a last resort, there is always the law of the land.

Answer 5

Divine authority is not the only source for ideas about good and evil, right and wrong.

ETHICS, the branch of philosophy that was developed by the Greeks, is just that: is the study of value, or morals and morality. It covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility, without relying on divine authority.


My Mom, who was my most important teacher about ethical behavior, didn't use religious terminology when she was teaching me right from wrong.

She taught me to think about whether what I was doing was fair (even-handed, not self-interested), whether it was compassionate (by asking me to put myself in the position of others), kind and thoughtful (asking myself what another person wanted or needed), and so on.

The MOST important thing that she taught me about right and wrong was that being able to meet my own eyes in the mirror without flinching was the best yardstick to determine whether I was living my life in an ethical fashion or not.

And she taught me to value my self-opinion above that of others.

She taught me that being ruthlessly honest with myself was the single most important step in living en ethical life - that I had to be honest with myself about why I do what I do, and to examine my ACTIONS as being the expression of my ethics...that if my behavior didn't support my self-image, I had to change my actions.

None of that was expressed in terms of religious belief.


BTW, I'm not an atheist. One of the reasons, probably, that I'm a Witch is that a complete understanding of the Rede demands exactly the same level of ruthless self-honesty that my Mom taught me to value...and that most other religions do NOT require.

Answer 6

Commonsense, society, parents....to name three.

I'm going to assume that you're not an Atheist and are possibly a christian.

It may be true that your idea of morality and mine differ. For one, I don't believe in "sin" in the same sense that you do. So for me having premarital - or nonmarital sex is not immoral. For you it may be.

Now that I'm married, my days of casual sex are over. That's not because I believe it's a sin, or that it's immoral, or because god said so. I don't sleep around, tempting as that may sometimes be, because it would hurt my husband (among other reasons not on topic).

Simple as that. Moral!

Answer 7

Basically, the atheist cannot claim any moral absolutes at all. To an atheist, ethics must be variable and evolving. This could be good or bad.

Answer 8

From life itself.

People naturally want to live, and they want to live without end as much as it is possible.

And from this desire comes understanding that no one lives in isolation. Life depends on life, on mutual cooperation, and on mutual understanding.

And since no one lives forever, people also want to transcend their death by contributing to and being a part of their family and their community. The individual dies, but his genes and some of his ways of thinking live on in his relatives. And the community he helped to build also lives on without any natural end.

Perhaps there isn't much difference between religious people and atheists in their motivation to be moral or in their basic principles of morality. They both want to be a part of their community in their present life and after they die. And their efforts to achieve this goal is what makes them both moral. The only difference between them is in the story they create to explain their moral behavior.

Answer 9

For a general groundwork; the fact that this is one's only run through life.........make it count.

More specifically, "morality" is defined by the age one lives in.

For one example, take marriage. Polygamy used to be seen as "moral".

Even more recently, 15 year old girls were getting married, this was not only considered "moral", but a societal necessity.

Answer 10

A lack of belief in God is not a prerequisite to a sense of justice and fair play. The golden rule can still apply.

Answer 11

Look at the history of this question, please.

We don't need the threat of punishment from god in order to behave in morally upright ways. Would the christians run amok without threat of hell?