Are Atheists Faithful?

Question

Are Atheists bound to the morals of religion? Why should Atheists be faithful to their spouses? Why should Atheists have only ONE spouse? Isn't that going against the laws of nature since we are only animals? Where is it said in the survival manual of animals, that one should not cheat on their spouse because it might 'hurt their feelings'? Why is it that Atheists continue to follow the Bible's guidelines for marriage?
Ooooo, I'm in trouble now. Let's hear it! : )

Why IS it bad to cheat on your spouse then? What's in it for evolution?
Muhahahahahahaha

you know what? i love all your answers! It's gonna be hard to pick one!

Answer 1

You sure are mister !!! It's the "Atheist's "GOD GIVEN" RIGHT, "NOT to believe" !

Answer 2

as someone who's actually studied ethics, i can tell you multiple ethical theories, one of which is obedience to a command, it's not really morals, you just obey. It's people like you that i control. giggle giggle.

check it out, there is a suggestion that your morals were made, in fact they were made by religious true hearted people. Entire societies and foundations of knowledge was. still today. There is truth that gleams through it all. People have made serious attempts at understanding and so on. Lets not forget your book came 2000 years ago, chinese history stretches 6000 years. Humans remains date back 60,000 years and i've heard an estimate of 100,000 years or 200,000, don't remember. So that a long time for humans as we know them, i know you don't like evolution but..... When humans came out they had full brains and already toll use from more primitive forms, the missing links et al. What does this have to do with ethics in my brain?

The religion developed with long lost religions well before it, it grows and evolves, we know of things like egyptians and greeks, jews, before the new religion, they were all in advanced stages suggesting long developement in the previous 100,000 years. Lost histories of civilizations and people we can only imagine. Bones are dust, wooden spears are all gone.

Sooooo, Religion (any faith) is a critique on the human experience. They all follow the path of life. There is a beggining, a creation, there is life and struggle, then there is death the ending. All represented on a grand scale in which we are all a part, because we are. An ingenious story really, but one that is often misunderstood, the forest is lost in the trees.

Because of these "misunderstandings" and my dislike of authority i was never a part of organized religion or any mainstream thing and i learned from my own mistakes. I'll tell you right now why 3 ways and such are no good.

1st what is it you want to do that is a sin, what do you think will be so much fun? I tell you i've done almost everyone of those things you dream about and more. I regret it, part of me enjoyed it but i never understood the full ramifications of my actions. I didn't think it would happen to me, i thought i could hide it, i would get away with it. Not only is there guilt, there is the constant fear of being found out, ever read the tell tale heart a short poem by Poe. What about the life i've ruined, people i've not only made feel bad but they hate me and think i'm scum. So, there is a reason, and for all your talk fundies are no better. Most gangbangers and drug dealers pray to the virgin mary.

Answer 3

"Why should Atheists be faithful to their spouses?"

Love, philosophical belief, honesty, customary? Any number of these reasons and more?

"Why should Atheists have only ONE spouse"

They shouldn't, unless they and their spouses want that.

"Isn't that going against the laws of nature since we are only animals?"

Some animals have more than one mate, some keep the same mate for life. Try studying nature.

"Why is it that Atheists continue to follow the Bible's guidelines for marriage?"

You forgot the word 'some'.

Marriage is a universal custom. Many cultures and religions share many of the same 'guidelines' as you call it. This is arguably because most of them are born originally from instinct/practicality.

"Ooooo, I'm in trouble now"

I'm not your imaginary punishing 'daddy', so chill.

Unless you were being vain enough to imagine your illogical and ill-informed 'questions' were going to 'ruffle feathers', LOL.

What a disappointment huh?

*EDIT*

OK I just looked up some of your 'Bible' marriage stuff:

"But if the bride's virginity does not satisfy the requirements, the husband can get rid of her by letting the men of the city stone her to death."

Deuteronomy 22:13-21

I might ask, why do you, as Christians, follow humanist principles and not murder your wives with rocks in public because they were married before??

*EDIT 2*

Whoops, looks like the asker got way too many sensible answers and decided to change tack.

Why not cheat on your spouse?

Well, maybe it would hurt their feelings? Emotional reasons? Maybe it would upset the family, be bad for the children? Maybe it would go against the mutual compact you have together. Use your imagination. Maybe it would go against your , wait for it...ethics/morals?? Do you think only Christians have a concept of honesty? Yep, I wouldn't be dishonest. And I'm not religious. Weird huh?

As for 'what's in it for evolution'? Huh? Evolution isn't my 'punishing daddy' either, I don't do things for evolution, I do things for myself and others, and the living things I share this planet with.

Answer 4

Show me the "Survival Manual of Animals".

Morality is NOT a religious thing. There were morals before Christianity. It stands to reason that you would know what is good and bad from what you would not want done to you. The Ethic of Reciprocity (which your Jesus based his Golden Rule upon) was around for 500 years before Jesus.

# "This is the sum of duty; do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you." — Mahabharata (5:15:17) (c. 500 B.C.)
# "What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others." — Confucius (ca. 551 - 479 B.C.)

On the basis of your belief, the ONLY thing keeping you from committing sins and atrocies is your religion. So, are you so evil that you would sin if you had no religion? Atheists are good people. Why would they not have morals? Your thinking is ridiculous. The only people who do things to intentionally hurt people are sociopaths.

Look up animals and you will see that we are part of the animal world, whether you like it or not. Look up primates, and you will see that we are on that list, too.

I married my husband because I love him. I would never do anything to hurt him. That keeps me from cheating and it has worked for 34 years. Everyone I know who has cheated were Christian. So religion doesn't stop that from happening. What keeps me from having more than one spouse is that it's against the law. I'm a law-abiding citizen. Also, I have enough dayum laundry to do.

atheist

Answer 5

because people know its wrong. atheists still believe in love and when you love someone you do not hurt them. plural marriage may be right for some but it hurts others so many have only one spouse.

we all have different morals. even religious people have both personal 'family' morals- rights and wrongs passed down generation to generation- religious ones (which are typically based on religious texts) and cultural ones.
some atheists have similar values to Christians because its so predominant in our society.
(cultural values can also not be part of religion or go against religion. still these morals are attributed to religion despite there being no real linkage. for instance, Islam states that women should be sexually satisfied by their husbands but middle eastern culture disagrees. the culture there says that the religion states women should be asexual, but its not true)

actually if you are familiar with evolution there is something called the neo-cortex. it is found only in humans and has developed over time, IE it evolved. it gives us higher thinking and more developed emotions. parts of the brain that have also been developed over time like the cerebral cortex deal specifically with things such as morals (the rights and wrongs we are all taught as children) and is the closest physical form we can attribute to the human conscience.

Answer 6

The Bible has passages about stoning non-virgins on their wedding night, incest and wives being subservient to their husbands. I think the atheists are fine not following these. Atheists not only have a lower divorce rate, they also have less occurrences of adultery than Christians. Seems to me, their morals are fine.
Atheists do the right thing simply because it is the right thing- not to avoid punishment or for a future reward. When you think about it, that's more moral than just following a book.
If you believe the Bible should be followed without question, why don't you own slaves? The Bible says it's fine.

Answer 7

christians or muslims or buddhists or jews can also be unfaithful. personal values and human decency can be separate from organized religion. Atheist just doesn't believe in the idea of God or a higher being. there's nothing that says you can't be faithful or married to just one person. Civil marriage laws only allow one spouse it has nothing to do with following the bible's guidelines since Abraham had a lot of wives. (I'm Polytheist)

Answer 8

Surely you're not suggesting that theists don't have affairs outside of their marriages, or that they limit themselves to one marriage, are you? By the way, no one is "bound to the morals of religion." Everyone does what they want to regardless of their religious beliefs. Morals do not come from religions. Religions merely record the morals that exist at the time the religion is created.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

Variation in divorce rates by religion:

Religion / % have been divorced

Jews: 30%
Born-again Christians: 27%
Other Christians: 24%
Atheists, Agnostics: 21%


Variation in divorce rates among Christian faith groups:

Denomination (in order of decreasing divorce rate) / % who have been divorced

Non-denominational (small conservative groups; independents): 34%
Baptists: 29%
Mainline Protestants: 25%
Mormons: 24%
Catholics: 21%
Lutherans: 21%

"The data showed that the highest divorce rates were found in the Bible Belt. 'Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma round out the Top Five in frequency of divorce...the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average' of 4.2/1000 people."

Answer 9

Being "faithful" has nothing to do with religion. It is a choice of character and integrity. When you love someone you love them and do not want to perpetrate injury upon them. Marriage is a choice and that choice is a package deal. If a person doesn't want the package then don't marry. But I would not want someone to be "faithful" out of a fear, out of a should, out of anything imposed. It has to be a choice of the heart, the soul, the integrity of the person. Oh, and as for animals, there are many animals that are more loyal to their mates then humans could ever be.

Answer 10

Have you noticed how much cheating is going on in the world, both theist and non-theist?? We pretend to be monogamous but at the same time our biological drive prompts certain behavior.

And we expect to see the same in monogamous animals: those that bond for life will still have plenty of sex with anything that looks desirable come springtime.

And really, the whole "nuclear family" jive was a Chistian invention. It made it easier to make sure the next generation would be christian too. Of course, with the higher education standard in most places this effect is dropping away.

Anyway, with most of my mates I've had a mutual understanding: I would be unhappy if you would sleep with someone else and you would be unhappy if I would sleep with someone else so let's agree to both not sleep with someone else. I've also had different types of relations, that worked for me too. It's all about finding a life that works for the both of you.

Answer 11

Because everyone have there own beliefs and we DONT follow the bible guidelines on marriage its called morals and even if you have no religion you still have morals!!!!

I choose not too believe in something that has never been seen and is scientifically false ok!