Are atheists moral and if so, by who's standards?

Question

Now, this is a question that was asked on youtube by a very religious guy who believes that "biblical morality" is the "True Morality" obviously being an atheist I think atheists are moral and that they we have a "flexible Morality" that changes with time and specific situations, but what do you guys think?

Answer 1

I completely agree, it would be unfair to every other ethical system, if we simply accepted and judged according to "biblical morality".
I think that most atheist derive morality from variations of social contract theory and other aspects that vary from time periods and societies.

Answer 2

You have an honest approach to morality. This "flexible morality" is exactly the right description when we have no fixed moral standard.

The problem for you is that if people clearly understood that your morality changes from situation to situation, why would they trust you? "Flexible morality" is how most of us would describe a cheat, a liar and a thief.

A good liar will lie about his or her morality because while lying might bring some advantage in specific situations, having a reputation for lying is a disadvantage. The best liars believe their own lies.

Answer 3

Of course Atheists are Moral. Unlike some people, not everyone is driven by what a book says is right and wrong. Some people can actually decide for themselves. In my opinion, religion is completely immoral. Religion kills thousands of people unnecessarily and justify it by saying it was "Holy War" in the name of "God".

Atheists have a sense of morality that isn't clouded by religion and its many contradictions. As an Atheist, I don't see the world through Rose tinted glasses, declaring that all suffering is "God's" will. I see it as it is: Suffering due to the mistakes human have made. I really believe that "True Morality" is an Atheists Morality. Atheists don't have to be told what is right and wrong by some man in a dress, they can realise it for themselves.




Sorry if I harped on a bit .... :-)

Answer 4

It's laughable to claim that all morality stems from religion. Religious morality can generally be divided into 3 categories:
1. Common sense stuff that you don't need religion to know. Don't steal, kill, etc.
2. Barbaric stuff that has no place in a civilized society, like stoning a son to death for talking back to his parents. (Lev. 20:9)
3. Arbitrary stuff that has no basis, like not working on the Sabbath. ("Because god says so.")

One of the reasons that religion evolved was as a morality enforcement mechanism. Follow the rules of your religion and you go to heaven, don't and you go to hell. This carrot-and-stick approach is commonly used to teach little children the difference between good & bad, but adults should be mature enough to not need this. Atheists do not believe in an afterlife, so why are we good? The simple answer is that we are good just for the sake of being good. Do we really need another reason?

Answer 5

Morality isn't linked to god or belief in the bible.... Of course you can not believe in god and still be moral and honourable. Its very old fashioned to have the opinion that atheists are somehow heathen. The "religious god squad" always like to be sanctimonious and think of themselves as superior. A lot of them could do with a big dose of humility!! They are not morally superior or superior in any way. In fact a lot of them are hypocrites; don't do as I do; do as I say.... or they think if they go and "confess" then "repent" their sins all is forgiven. Just look at how a lot of Catholic priests abused young boys, is that morally superior???

PS - I like your idea about flexible morality which changes, evolves and develops over time.

Answer 6

Morality is not something we get taught in the bible like the laws of Moses. Morals are our sense of what is right. Not, what is wrong, as in a moral word there would be no wrong. Therefore, Atheists can be just as moral as the next man or woman.

Answer 7

Problem is this: atheists are taken for amoral because morality itself is taken to mean adhering to and living by a set of injunctions or a code of conduct imparted FROM WITHOUT, while "True Morality' is living with the well-being of all uppermost in one's actions and even in one's intentions; it is living by one's INNER voice. THAT is the standard, and 'standard' in the truest sense of the word, for the 'standards of morality' as applied by societies at large change with time and circumstance; in fact these 'standards' are not standard at all, they are just conventions apllied to members of the society, at times forcefully even, to keep check on their conduct.

I therefore can't go along with the last part of your detail: I consider myself to be an atheist because I believe in no personal 'God' - to me 'God' is the totality of Existence; everyone and everything being ever a part thereof, I have never had to go by any alternative 'flexible' morality, there has never been any cause for it.

Answer 8

Atheism has become a sort of religion now with its own dogma and indoctrination of so called facts and laws. These facts and laws change with every new discovery and theory that disproves what was once fact. Morality is just as transient it changes from village to village, country to country and belief to belief. It also changes over time from one generation to the next. The only thing that can be called 'objective' morality is our conscience but to get that we would need to wake up, but most people live their lifes in a half sleep state, a dream world.

Answer 9

Morality is a very elastic concept. Of course there are basic standards or ethical rules that should bind the human emotions. It is for this reason that laws are created, but unfortunately some of the human beings that create the rules attached to it their own concepts and prejudices. The death of Jesus was not unmoral at the time since the State saw right to condemn revolutionaries and criminals according to their moral code.

Answer 10

Absolutely no reason why they shouldn't be - although it is no guarantee - there have been plenty of "immoral" atheists.

As Monty Python would have it .."be nice to people and read a good book occasionly..."

As a pagan/ druid I find it hard to take lessons from a religion that has distorted truths and killed millions to get its "message" across .

The big JC himself was top drawer.

However, most christians don't seem to have heard/ understood a word he said. They have very little monopoly on what is morality.

So I don't think an atheist who lives a good life needs to worry