Who/What Governs An Atheist To Have High Morals And Ethics?

Question

Without the fear of hell or reverence of God...who/what influences them to choose good over evil?

Is this factor universal?

JAYCEEINSPECT: Our thoughts/beliefs shape who we are. The beauty of this ‘freethinker’ responsibility...is that each individual creates his/her personal view of the world. Since thoughts/beliefs are so powerful, I often ask myself—if a particular thought/belief is ‘working’ for me...contributing to my joys and successes. I once killed a baby lizard. I cried for days...not because I feared the momma lizard, but because I saw value in its life. I wonder how this particular thought/belief ‘serves’ you...

NICENCOOL1: Great article! The nature theory of psychopathology is another supporting topic of interest...discussing the link between brain abnormalities and lack of empathy. Ironically, my mother is a board member of the Plexus Institute and her Complexity Science story was one published. Are you affiliated with them?

FRANKY F: One possible answer to your inquiry can be found by clicking the link in NiceNCool1’s post.

Answer 1

Ethics and morality are Evolutionary in origin. They are both directly connected to the emotions and the emotions are what create the very thing that has allowed us to Evolve Ethics and Morality. It's called our sense of Empathy.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy
Empathy:
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

It's our sense of Empathy that allows us to mentally put ourselves in someone else's shoes. Thereby having a sense of what others go through we have in effect and of course vicariously experienced it ourselves. It's that knowledge that helps us to create our own morality and our own ethical codes through the feelings of remorse that we have from our actions. Which are directly connected to our sense of Empathy.

The evidence that this is true is from people who seem to have no remorse. There have been many case studies to suggest that the lack of remorse is due to either damage to the brain which contain 'mirror neurons', or simply the brains innate inability to create these neurons. They are what we believe creates our Empathic senses.

http://www.plexusinstitute.org/NewsEvents/show_Thursday_Complexity_Posts.cfm?id=214

Answer 2

For myself (an agnostic rather than an aethiest), I just use my own sense of morals. I believe I am here not to please a god or gods, but to live my life to the fullest and leave the world doing my part to make it a better place.

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And I heartily agree with the post above mine - if you are educated and let your morals develop naturally, rather than as a response to a threat, you may become a better person. Not saying you will, but you can. Although sometimes, some people (typically of a lower intelligence) need a belief such as a God and a Heaven and a Hell to save him/herself. This belief serves them a reason to maintain a moral life when they lack the philosophical train of thought necessary to do so without a solid, direct reason.

Answer 3

Higher, rational thinking. This is what separates us from the animals. Every decision a human being makes is made more complicated by our moral reasoning ability. Animals, on the other hand, are driven mostly by instinct. Even if a person doesn't believe in punishment meted out by a higher power, there are an infinite number of factors to consider in every decision one makes: should I buy the flashy sports car while people are starving in Africa? Should I lie to my boss, the person who pays my salary and allows me the lifestyle I have? Should I be a father to my child or should I take care of myself first? etc. I believe as humans we have an innate concept of good and evil that is independent from what is taught to us by organized religion. Since we have emotions, moral reasoning and pragmatism hardwired into our advanced brains, it is pretty hard to act willingly malicious. Empathy also plays a role in our actions too.

Answer 4

Society and parents. You don't need to fear God to know what is right and wrong. Where do Christians get their morals from? They can't all come from the bible because they often choose what passages to take literally and which are allegorical. Where does that moral sense come from? When you do something good or bad, do you really think about fearing God? When you were little, and you got a bad grade, or lied to your parents, were you afraid of God or your parents? You don't need a god to know killing is wrong or cheating and stealing and lying are wrong as well. You get your morals from your parents more than you do the Bible. Do you kill any homosexuals you know? Do you work on the sabbath? The bible says you should kill homosexuals and you should be killed if you work on the Sabbath. The Bible has good morals, but it also has a lot of really horrible ones too. Do not cherry pick what looks good.

Cheers

Answer 5

For me,it's common decency.The empathetic respect of others' existential freedom.I base my ethics on empathy and the "do unto others" quote.Everything else goes into subjective and comlicated debate.

...and the thing that keeps me from doing things against my ethics is the fact that if I don't respect that,I will get alot of harsh input.
In the end,all ethics at their source are selfish.Not to say they're not civil.Nietzsche's Will to Power delves into this, especially in Beyond Good & Evil and Geneology of Morals.

Answer 6

A person can / should be able to govern themself! Why do I need someone else telling me what I can and can not do? I have my own brain and can think and freason for myself. I do not need someone else to try and treaten me into being nice to people!

I treat people the way they treat me. True I am a Satanist but hey same thing really I oppose the God making threats of torture idea to keep people in line. Biggest thing is I do not believe that threats will work in the long term. If they would then we wouldn't see all these so called Christians commiting crimes then asking their Jesus to forgive them!

A person should be able to govern themself! If you can't then you have real issues!

Answer 7

It's called Philosophy which taught people Morals & Ethics about a 1,500 years before Jesus was born & right about the time the Bible was being written. Most ancient scholars/monks/christian & Muslim religious leaders studied ancient Philosophy religiously (no pun intended). Socrates, Plato, Aristotle all taught Morals & Ethics and most highly educated Christians read them as much as the Bible from the middle ages to today.

Answer 8

The inherent knowledge of right and wrong. It doesn't take a religious experience for a toddler to understand that it hurts when someone hits you. I believe in God, but my choice to do what I know is right, has nothing to do with the fear of going to hell. Isn't it more sad to think people are 'forced' into behaving in a civilized fashion toward others...because they're afraid not to? Isn't it better to be a decent human being because you WANT to?

I don't know. I just wonder if evangelicals and fanaticals realize how they sound when they say they're 'God fearing people'. To me...it sounds like they REALLY mean "We'd do terrible things if left to our own devices, and we only worship God because we're afraid not to." Somehow, I don't think that's exactly what God wants.

Answer 9

It seems to be. Studies on ethics show that beliefs tend to be better understood by game theory, economics or biology than by religion. It appears to be an adaptive factor of the species.

Answer 10

Conscience, upbringing, life experience, common sense, compassion and empathy. None of these qualities are necessarily tied to religion; given religion's history, quite the opposite is often true.