Atheists, morality is, whether you like it or not, strongly connected with religion. Why are you moral?

Question

If you dislike religion so much, why are you (trying to be) moral?

Answer 1

I don't kill you because I think you have value, in and of yourself. If the only thing thats stopping you from killing me is your belief in a Sky God, could you please keep believing and not become my neighbor?

Answer 2

I am not an atheists but if someone chooses to be an
atheists or believe in something other than I do I don't try
to force my beliefs on them. I may not agree with them on
creations but I respect them as individuals. And morals
are no guarantee of being religious. Some of the most moral and decent people I know never go to church and some
people who were brought up in church and are members of
churches lives don't show any indication of it. And the
thing about this country is the people have the right to believe
whatever they choose. We have enough difference within the
religious groups to argue about without attacking those who
chose no religion. If you really care just pray for them and let
God take care of the rest.

Answer 3

Morality is defined by the individual, it can be highly spiritual or not at all.

Atheists are trying to be moral because they still care about being a good person. Just because they don't believe in a higher being doesn't mean that they don't strive to be a good, moral person. At the end of the day, everyone feels guilty if they did something wrong....not necessarily because they will be damned to hell....but because of human spirit and conscious.

In other words, atheists try to be moral because everyone tries to be the best person they can be, and that isn't always influenced by a higher being.

Answer 4

Hi bigot.

Christianity is so moral; that is why Christians spend time plotting to destroy anyone who is not a Christian or who opposes the silly Bible. The Bible teaches amoral values, murder, hatred, false beliefs about reality, and so forth. You are all liars, like Jesus, the unHoly Spirit and the great sky dad YHWH.

Have any of your Christian friends mutilated a newborn baby lately? Have you used your Christian witchcraft on anyone this week (prayer) to mind control them into becoming a robot like yourself?

As science progresses, stupid beliefs get thrown down.

Morality is a natural aspect of most human beings. Nobody tries to be moral, you either are or are not, it is a *choice* that has nothing to do with religion.

Answer 5

How is morality strongly connected to religion?

Why would you think people who don't believe in a god wouldn't want to live moral. ethical lives?

Could it be that religious people only do it for the promised reward, not for the simple fact that it's right?

Answer 6

So, what your saying is, I should go out and do whatever the hell I want, damn the consequences just because I don't believe in religion? Morality comes from consequences of actions and loving your fellow man. Why don't you rob an old lady walking down the street and beat her head in? Because it is illegal and you would not be loving your fellow man. Nothing to do with what a religion tells you.

Answer 7

The religious only insult their own natures in asking this question. Are you moral only because you fear godly punishment and hope for reward (and to somehow "skip" death rather than come to accept it)?

Morality predates religion. Anyone who studies ancient cultures can show you examples of peaceful societies--and peaceful societies are those with rules and order.

Religion has been used to begin wars, to condone slavery and to oppress women. (Most people don't realize that the Bible's commandment about coveting your neighbor's wife actually includes her in a list of all his other property--his house, his stuff, etc.). Is this moral?

Religious people, having been repeatedly thumped with the dogma that they are worthless sinners, always operate from the assumption that they only have their "goodness" because it was GIVEN them by religion. They can't even conceive that perhaps they always had it.

You can't ask this question about the dogma from WITHIN the dogma...you have to step out of it.

Answer 8

Your premise is flawed. Morality is the product of evolution. Obviously being good to others has benefited our species.

If morality is so connected to religion, then why was the most religious period in history (the European middle ages) also the most cruel and violent?

I am moral because it is in my nature. You do not know what you are talking about.

Answer 9

How do you know slavery is wrong?

The Bible certainly does not give us any indication of that.


Should women be allowed to speak in Church?

The Bible says no, but again I'll bet you think it is wrong to tell women they have no say in church.


How can Atheists know what is moral?
I copied this from Sam Harris' "10 myths and 10 Truths about Atheism:

"If a person doesn’t already understand that cruelty is wrong, he won’t discover this by reading the Bible or the Koran — as these books are bursting with celebrations of cruelty, both human and divine. We do not get our morality from religion. We decide what is good in our good books by recourse to moral intuitions that are (at some level) hard-wired in us and that have been refined by thousands of years of thinking about the causes and possibilities of human happiness.

We have made considerable moral progress over the years, and we didn’t make this progress by reading the Bible or the Koran more closely. Both books condone the practice of slavery — and yet every civilized human being now recognizes that slavery is an abomination. Whatever is good in scripture — like the golden rule — can be valued for its ethical wisdom without our believing that it was handed down to us by the creator of the universe.

People of faith often claim that the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were the inevitable product of unbelief. The problem with fascism and communism, however, is not that they are too critical of religion; the problem is that they are too much like religions. Such regimes are dogmatic to the core and generally give rise to personality cults that are indistinguishable from cults of religious hero worship. Auschwitz, the gulag and the killing fields were not examples of what happens when human beings reject religious dogma; they are examples of political, racial and nationalistic dogma run amok. There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable. "




I would like to add some of my own experience... I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer at the turn of the Century. I volunteered two years of my own life to help those less fortunate. Most of the PCV's with me were not Christian, even though we all came from a predominately Christian nation.

People who enter prisons are overwhelmingly Christian in the US, while Atheists are under-represented in prisons in comparison to their proportion of the population (probably because they are better educated).

Keep in mind, there is PLENTY in the Bible or Koran to justify violence, war and cruelty. There is NOTHING in Atheism that promotes violence.


We have morals because we evolved them. We are social animals that must have rules on how our society acts much the way chimp societies have rules.

If you are really interested in where our morality comes from, I suggest you look at "Primates and Philosophers: How our Morality Evolved" by Frans De Waal and "The Science of Good and Evil" by Michael Shermer.

Answer 10

Morality isn't rocket science. The PERCEPTIONS of certain "levels" of "morality" IS connected with religion, but it's far simpler than that... deeds that cause harm and/or suffering are non-virtuous and will bring a bad result eventually, and deeds that are altruistic ARE virtuous and will yield a good result at some point... that's not religion, it's logical fact.

_()_

Answer 11

Morality
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
1 a : a moral discourse, statement, or lesson
b : a literary or other imaginative work teaching a moral lesson
2 a : a doctrine or system of moral conduct
b plural : particular moral principles or rules of conduct
3 : conformity to ideals of right human conduct

Moral
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin moralis, from mor-, mos custom
1 a : of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior : ETHICAL
b : expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior
c : conforming to a standard of right behavior
d : sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment
e : capable of right and wrong action
2 : probable though not proved : VIRTUAL
3 : perceptual or psychological rather than tangible or practical in nature or effect
- mor·al·ly /-&-lE/ adverb

synonyms MORAL, ETHICAL, VIRTUOUS, RIGHTEOUS, NOBLE mean conforming to a standard of what is right and good.
MORAL implies conformity to established sanctioned codes or accepted notions of right and wrong .
ETHICAL may suggest the involvement of more difficult or subtle questions of rightness, fairness, or equity .
VIRTUOUS implies moral excellence in character .
RIGHTEOUS stresses guiltlessness or blamelessness and often suggests the sanctimonious .
NOBLE implies moral eminence and freedom from anything petty, mean, or dubious in conduct and character .

Not too much about Religion in there...