Athiest, If there is no God where does morality come from?

Question

Our conscious is God's moral law written on our hearts so that we would know right from wrong. It is proof that there is a God. But you do not believe that. So by what authority is there to apply morality to mankind. Why should murder, child abuse, adultery, perversion, stealing, lying, ect... be consider wrong. What prevents anarchy?

The logical conclusion to the belief that we evolved is that men can do what ever is right in their own eyes. By what right does one evolved man have to enforce his view of right and wrong through laws over another evolved man?

What say you highly evolved animal?

I have enjoyed reading your comments. I found it Interesting that most of you did not pay attention to the details of the question to understand that I am saying that morality comes from obeying our conscience. God wrote his law in our conscience when we were created, long before the law was given to Moses and written down in the Bible. God's law predates anything we know. Observing inmoral behavior in Christians or Athiests does not discount my statement. Also as true evolutionist you see the conscience as a learn atribute that become genetically past on. This makes no logical sense if it did why wouldn't language skills be genetic.
I also noticed that everyone seems to consider themselves good people. How about testing that theory. If you are willing go to this link and take this test.
http://www.goodpersontest.com/

Manneke-
Are you afriad to take the test? I would think someone as intelegent and educated as you proudly declare would have no issue with a simple test of moral character.

Also, all your so called proof for evolution is contained in books written by men and therefore can not be trusted and is subject to fallacies.
Does this agrument sound familar?

Answer 1

your details is a sermom w/in itself . keep-up the good work .

Answer 2

Morality existed long before your religion - are you seriously suggesting that those humans who existed before your religion did not have their own morals? Are you seriously stating that anybody who does not believe in your god cannot have a strong moral code? That is unbelievably arrogant.
We are indeed animals - animals who evolved morality in order for our complex social groups to function effectively, in order for us to cooperate effectively.
There is irrefutable evidence (proof, if you will) that we are descended from apelike ancestors. We ARE primates. That is a matter of biology. There is no evidence whatsoever to the contrary.
You ask by what right an evolved man (whatever this is meant to mean) can enforce his laws on another evolved man (or woman). This is a non sequitur; your religion simply does not change the fact that humans have always imposed rules upon other humans. Adducing the existence of a divine being as justification for rules does not change this, it merely provides an excuse for these rules to be accepted unquestioningly.
There IS proof that we evolved from apelike ancestors; there is NO proof whatsoever for the existence of your god.
Your religion is not necessary for morality to exist. Have you seriously never heard of moral philosophy?
PS: sorry, I studied for a degree in Psychology at a good English university and do not recognise the validity of the "Good Person Test" that you are recommending. I resent such flimsy "tests" being held up as possessing any more validity than a diverting magazine article.
PPS: Actually, there is a strong body of evidence to show that our capacity for language IS hardwired into our brains - see for example Wernicke's Area and Broca's Area in the human brain.

Answer 3

What do you have to say about those without a moral conscience? That they exist apart from and in opposition to God? Morality follows logically from biological interest in the survival of the species. It makes sense for people to group together and from there, it makes more sense for those people to establish a code to live by. Those that do not live by this code (which is optional) are expelled from the group. Through this process there have developed a series of morals but few, if any, are universal. The ones that are deemed unacceptible to Western culture are known as 'taboo'. Authority is not necessary for order and anarchy is a means to an end and not an end in and of itself. Have you ever read any works of philosophy? Your question is elementary but your application of logic is invalid. Evolution has naught to do with it except that the way it has gone has been more beneficial to those that remain. QED

Answer 4

First off, you should have looked for this question before you posted it again. It has been posted about 20 times (and thats just what I've seen), and I've answered about 3 times.

Morality, or the doing of good deeds, comes a long, long time ago (about 12-13 thousand years ago) before there was religion. Everyone lived in thier little tribes, and the tribes had very little contact with other tribes. Therefore, chances were great that everyone in the tribe was closly related to everyone else. A reason for you to do good things for other people was that they were related to you, so you would keep your genes going. Another reason is that if you did something good for someone else, they would do something good for you. Another reason would be that if you continually did good things for others, you would get a reputation for doing good things, and people would respect you. And sonce this happened so long ago, it got imprinted into our genes.

Answer 5

"Our conscious is God's moral law written on our hearts so that we would know right from wrong."

No I disagree. It is our evolutionary heritage providing us with the ability to live succesfully in society.

"Why should murder, child abuse, adultery, perversion, stealing, lying, ect... be consider wrong. What prevents anarchy?"

The desire to NOT be murdered, raped, and burglarized. Duh.

"The logical conclusion to the belief that we evolved is that men can do what ever is right in their own eyes."

If they want to be cast from society and live on their own. Or be put in prison for life.

"By what right does one evolved man have to enforce his view of right and wrong through laws over another evolved man?"

Freedom from fear, terror, oppression. Freedom to express yourself, live the life you want, and love those who you care about.

"What say you highly evolved animal?"

The answer is simple.

A society provides benefits for the individual that a lone animal can not have on its own. When you are a member of society you have others that can look out for you and help you. A society can ONLY survive if the members naturally want benefit and safety to come to all. If a group was constantly fighting, stealing, and killing each other they would collapse.

A society that loves, cares, and helps others survives, as do all the members.

Morality is explained by evolution.

.... I am sure I am wasting my breath.

Answer 6

Oh, I see, so only people who worship the god of Abraham can be moral?

You do realize that humans are social animals. All social animals have codes of conduct to be a member of the tribe, pride, pack, or herd. There have always been codes of conduct to be a part of human groups. As our brain evolved, we made more complex rules. Soon those rules became morals. God was added after the morals were created to give the rules and extra punch of authority.

Answer 7

First of all, of course, there is the issue of your spelling and grammar. The word is "atheist," and comes from the Greek, meaning "without god." It is also possible to make this noun a plural by the usual process of appending an "s' to the end, as in "atheists."

Now, as to morality: We evolved from social animals. In our genetic makeup there is a predisposition to behave in certain ways which benefit the group as a whole. Having developed the capacity to speak and think, we have observed our behavior in groups and adjusted it as human society progressed from small clan groups through tribes, agricultural communities, urban societies and up through today.

Morality is not the invention of religion. Religion is a social means of disseminating moral messages, but even so, the messages are not likely to run counter to the society in which they are disseminated.

Answer 8

It comes from us. Any functioning mind can tell that murder, child abuse, stealing, adultery and lying are wrong. (I'll reserve my opinion re perversion.) In any working society therefore that will be the prevailing opinion and offenders will be dealt with.

If God existed, and all morality did come from God, people who denied God's existence would be completely immoral. This is far from the case. Indeed, atheists are on the whole no more evil than religious folk. (I would like to say we are better of course, but in all honesty I can't.)

Answer 9

Old classic huh? God also allowed slavery and rape not to mention his son (likely god himself) slayed and killed so yeah killing is part of god's morals and happens everyday... Morality is built from a social aspect as well from right and wrong then personal aspect. Because you have to stop and think how it would feel if it was done upon you from a stranger or even a love one. It doesn't take a book to tell me what is wrong and right. Yeah god also sent animals out to kill those that didn't obey him so yeah I really should look up the good book for moral codes... No thanks. As a mater of fact why aren't christians eating their "dung" and drinking their urine" remember "it's in the bible" and christians would want us to read and follow the bible...

Answer 10

Morality comes from us. We learn what's right and wrong and how to act in a way that is deemed "moral" by the standards of our society. There are people in this world who have never heard of god and are still considered to be moral. Morality is social construct, not a religious gift. And no, it does not prove that god exists, but nice try.

Thanks for the *drink*!

Answer 11

Well, moral ethics developed out of our caste systems developed through the times. Caste systems were developed when people thought they were better than others and they had more power. The higher ups in the caste systems decided the "law", be it from the Bible or their own ethic code.

It doesn't prove God exists, but does not prove God doesn't exist either.