Do atheist have morals since they don't believe in a higher power?

Question

Geez...it was just a question, no need to get all upset.

Answer 1

i was just thinking that, my friend works with a guy that is an atheist. He once ask my friend if he would trust him. In reply to catch him off guard he said "How can I, since you believe in no form of God then you don't have to worry about being punished if you are lieing to me."
I believe most do but they have nothing to back it up.

Answer 2

I think that Atheist are pretty much like most people. The answer to your question would be some do and some don't. I am a Christian and believe that I probably have a stronger desire to live a moral life but to ask a blanket question like that is like asking if African Americans make better athletes....some do and some don't.

Answer 3

I have the morals that I choose to take upon myself. I know that the person I will have to answer too is myself if I am to break them. I do not need a higher power to know what is right and wrong for me. It is such a degrading thing to me to hear you ask me this question. I feel as if you wish to make me less of a human. It hurts. It would be the same as if I was to say to you you have no soul. I wouldn't do that because I know it would distress you and would do nothing to help anyone. It would only hurt me to do that to another human being.

Answer 4

I know many people that, that's exactly what they believe in is a higher power. I have learned this in life, a good share of them have more morals then the person that's in church every Sunday and acting all self righteous. Church doesn't prove a thing, except you were there. Its how you live your life outside the church that counts.

Answer 5

Atheist are some of the most moral people I have every met. Mostly because they are not forced to live morally by the believe in God but they do it because it is the right thing to do.

Answer 6

Atheists are just regular people like you. Most Atheists are moral, just like most people in general.

All morality begins and ends with sympathy.

We have evolved the ability to empathize, to share the motivations and feelings of those around us. From this, we have gained the ability to sympathize with the plight of others, to understand what may be causing them distress or pain, and to wish, for their sake, that their suffering would stop. Armed with this sympathy, we act in a moral way to prevent the distress and suffering of others. Our opinions on what constitutes a moral course of action may differ, but the underlying sympathy is the same. With sympathy for others and recognition of the similarities between people, we each build an internal code of the morality of our actions.

Answer 7

Morals are not based on higher powers. Morals are based on your person set of rules of right and wrong. Usually based on the laws of their country, values learned in childhood, and any personal viewpoints learned through education.

Answer 8

They have morals but those morals which are good are given to them by God.


This is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church -

2126 Atheism is often based on a false conception of human autonomy, exaggerated to the point of refusing any dependence on God. Yet, "to acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God. . . . " "For the Church knows full well that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart."

2123 "Many . . . of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive, or explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time."

Answer 9

Yes I believe they do but the problem is their morales are based on what they feel is right and what is wrong. Example: Is it morally wrong to steal from someone who has MORE than enough? It doesn't matter what you take from them. Should I be allowed to steal $10000.00 dollar from Bill Gates, he wouldn't even miss it. An atheist depends on his/her own opinion which m,ay be dictated by thier own greed or desire not a higher being. JESUS

Answer 10

I would think so, you don't have to be a Christian to be a nice person. Seems there's some really nice atheists on here once in a while. And there's some really cruel ones too. I think it has more to do with personality just like every other group you might ask about. We're all just people......anyway most of us are.....LOL

Answer 11

More morals than you could imagine. Research secular humanism. Some people need religion to help them be moral but at the expense of the lies that come with it. Like imaginary friends called gods and such.