How do Atheists claim to have any morals?

Question

If there is no God, then where would any sense of right or wrong come from? It seems that an Atheist claiming that anything is either right or wrong contradicts himself and proves that their is some sort of higher standard.

Answer 1

My morals come from empathy and common sense. I don't want others to treat me badly or cheat me and I can't reasonably expect them to if I am unwilling to treat others as I want to be treated. I know what it feels like to suffer so when I see others hurting my heart goes out in part from personal experience and the hope someone would be kind to me in that situation. Right and wrong can be derived from common sense and asking what sort of world would you like to live in and leave for your children.

I believe our sense of right and wrong is in part evolved from the fact we are social animals who live and acheive more in groups and societies. You can't live in a group without respect for the rights of others. The result is chaos. Say I were without morals and killed someone for money or whatever reason. That person's family, if society doesn't have laws against this, would in many cases take retribution. If you have things like this going on in a large scale society breaks down and we fail to acheive our full potential as a social group. I think basic morals are very easy to derive without recourse to the supernatural.

Answer 2

Human intelligence. Common sense. Empathy for our fellow humans. My parents, my society.
You don't need a preacher or a book to tell you what is right or wrong...it's NOT THAT HARD to figure it out!
And an atheist claiming that anything is either right or wrong is not contradicting himself. That's complete nonsense. They're just using their heads.
You know, if you believe in God, and you believe that He gave you brains to work with, then you're insulting God by claiming that we don't have the intelligence to figure out right from wrong ALL BY OURSELVES.

Answer 3

Your premise is false... belief in god does not equal morals.

I try to be a good person, practicing good morals and ethics, in everything I do because it's the right thing to do, not because I'm promised eternal life or threatened with hell.

People have an inate sense of right and wrong. It's the choices they make that define how they use it. Look at all of the fallen religious leaders. They have a belief in god and yet, they had a serious issue with morals.

Further, in America, the Christians outnumber atheists by a dramatic margin... yet crime is rising in this country. You do the math.

Answer 4

Christians have faith that they are in a position to be forgiven for all of their sins. some have faith that a guy or woman's morality has no longer something to do with whether or no longer they pass to heaven, yet that salvation relies upon purely on faith in Jesus. How is that ethical? additionally, your declare is fake. Atheists might would desire to be nihilistic provided that God/ concept in God have been the only source of values. God and faith are no longer the only source of values, and hence your end isn't actual.

Answer 5

I don't have any morals. I just try to live a decent life and get along as best as I can. It is much easier to be kind and considerate when possible than be a robber, liar cheat or thief.
When you mistreat others the word gets around. And what goes around comes around is a simple way of keeping your relationships with other humans in mind. Morality is not a religious construct, it is a social construct.
Failing to understand this is why so many Church folk end up in jail.

Answer 6

Why would there be right or wrong if a god does exist? You're correct in that the idea of right or wrong behavior becomes a matter of opinion, but you are just a prejudice @ss if you think that atheists are immoral. I mean, you would really have to be living your life with hateful blinders on.

Answer 7

Yeah right...a a day in my life is just full of immoral living....I sleep til noon...get up...eat some food...play around on Answers for a bit...get ready for work...go to work...work in the er as a nurse...tend to sick and injured patients while providing comfort and attention...go home...surf the net for a bit...go to bed...and start all over....I don't lie (often), never cheat, never steal, never kill, drink very little, don't do drugs, I'm kind to animals, I don't rape or molest others, I may speed just a little(I have a sports car), I give a lot to charity, I also give my time to charity...so yeah...I'm a truly immoral person.....

Oh yeah...my morals come from my parents and because I just basically know that I should treat others as I would want to be treated...no god needed for that....

Answer 8

It's easy. The claims of religion to be repositories of moral virtue are completely without foundation. All moral systems derive from evolution, which applies to societies as well as to species: a society which lives by a sound moral code will survive preferably to one that does not. Since actions such as murder and robbery are inimical to most every society, these are generally condemned.

Answer 9

This is a drinking question, right?

You don't have to have god to have morals. So you're saying the only thing that's keeping you from going on a psychotic homicidal child raping murdering rampage is the fact you have god? Remind me not to live by you.

Answer 10

Your argument is flawed from the beginning because you wrongly assume that morals are the product of religion, there are not. Morals and ethics are created, organized, and enforced by society. For what are morals other than communal rules agreed upon by a society. You see similar type of rules in all communal animals (colonies of monkeys, herds of elephants and buffalo, a pride of lions, flocks of many birds, bee hives, ant colonies, etc).