Can atheists logically explain why they have moral values?

Question

If absolute truth is relative (my truth is good for me while your truth is good for you) then please explain an absolute moral law. To say that a government lines up these values doesn't work. I can use Hitler as an example....

Answer 1

Moral and ethical laws are necessary for functional societies.

Those species that develop ethical values, (altruism, reciprocity, civil defense, sharing, etc.) are more likely to preserve their genetic diversity during times of crisis. Natural selection does the rest.

Answer 2

As for how most atheists have moral values, it is all about
human decency. Courtesy. Common sense. Respect.
Ethics. Character.

Just because my self code calls for doing what is right
doesn't mean I have copied or try to live by any commandments a religion has come up with.

When a child is bad, you should teach him that is wrong. Religion often tells the child the 'devil is going to get him' or 'god is watching him'. Why not just teach him how wrong it is to behave in such a vile manner? How would he like to be picked on, hit, stolen from, etc. Doing good just feels good.
Teach him the truth. The Santa Claus factor only goes so far.

Doing bad feels bad. Could it be any more simple?

I don't have the fear of thinking someone is watching me. I watch myself, and I know what feels right and what helps the world to be a better place. I'm holding the door for the little old lady because it's the right thing to do, not because I expect a reward or get brownie points when I die. It also helps that my own kids see that living right is the right thing to do.

If each of us gave a little kindness without expecting something in return, imagine what a fun place this would be to live.

Here's a thought. Charity. It is often said that atheists do not run charities. Wrong. Atheists make up a great portion of charity, we just don't feel the need to advertise or expect kudos because of who we are. Imagine helping a woman pick up her spilled groceries in a parking lot, then yell for everyone to look. "Hey, everyone, look at me, I just did something good."

It should be about wanting to be good, do good just because.
Not because of.

P.S. Hitler was an idiot, it didn't matter his thoughts.

Answer 3

Pretty simple... Moral is based on what is good for society and each individual. If it makes you feel good and doesn't bother anyone, than there's nothing wrong in it. If it makes somebody else feel good without bothering you or anybody else, it is also good. It's just pure logic.
Right and wrong can be determined by "laws" that exist and many religions, like "do not do to others what you wouldn't want them to do to you". The only difference is we don't respect that law because we're afraid of spending eternity in hell. We just do it because if everybody was to do the same, we would live in perfect happiness here on earth.
Following the word of God blindly to gain access to heaven is like obeying to everything your parents tell you to do. It's a good thing when you're young and need their guidance, but one day, you have to grow up and understand the reason behind what they were saying. When you cross the street, you need to watch in both directions, but not because your mom told you so, but because you might get hit by a car...
Religion is not the source of moral values. It's just a way to explain "how the world should be" to those who need to be told what to do, because they don't have any inner moral value.

PS: By the way, religion can use "false moral values" just like any government. Just because it's coming from a religious organisation doesn't make it better... Do I really have to start with the crusades, the inquisition, the terrorism, etc...

Answer 4

Morality and values are all relative. I know holy people who are very jagged and rude, but others who are wikkan whom are some of the kindest and most pleasant people you'll ever meet. Atheism is no exception. So an absolution of moral laws is next to impossible to comprise. Not killing people is a good start though. But if you're trying to imply that because atheists don't believe in god/bible then they have no direction and the bible holds all moral answers for you then you're drasticly wrong. I can use killing people who work on the sabbath as an example...

Answer 5

It doesn't take belief in a God to know that if you wouldn't want something done to you, then you shouldn't do that thing to someone else. If you didn't believe in God, would you do things that you know bring pain or suffering to others? Are you not capable of feeling empathy; do you need to be TOLD that hurting someone else is wrong? If you do, then you might want to seek therapy.

And using Hitler as an example of why you need God to have morals is a BAD idea. Read "Mein Kampf". He himself says he is doing "The Lord's work" with respect to the Jews.

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. ...Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. ...

- Adolf Hitler, speech on April 12, 1922

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/john_murphy/religionofhitler.html
http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm
http://ffrf.org/fttoday/back/hitler.html
http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm

Hitler has EXACTLY the sort of "morals" that have been displayed by the Christian religion throughout the centuries when you look at the condemnation and persecution practiced by Christianity against everyone who doesn't follow their beliefs. From the inquisition and the crusades, to the Salem witch trials, NO religion has displayed a complete and total lack of respect and/or empathy for their fellow human beings the way that Christianity has in the name of their God, and yet, they're ironically also the first to criticize the morals of those that don't follow their beliefs.

Answer 6

Not all truth is relative, but moral truth certainly is—and I can use Hitler (a Christian) as an example. How do you explain the fact that Christian and Islamic fundamentalists both believe (and have the historical pedigrees to prove) in conversion through genocide and see no inconsistency in murdering, raping, torturing, barbequing, and hacking-off body parts as a means to spread their spiritual messages of unconditional love and goodness?

Answer 7

Why do religious people assume that religion and morality are mutually inclusive? Is it really that surprising that someone who doesn't believe in a god can have a moral character? Morality doesn't come from religion, it comes from basic humanity.

Morality is simply ethics... the ability to distinguish right from wrong. People indoctrinated with religious ideology generally have different ideas about what is right and wrong than someone who is an atheist does.

The only people who lack morality are people who are mentally incapable of knowing the difference between right and wrong... people with sociopathic tendencies.

Answer 8

just because hitler was a mad man doesnt mean that everyone in germany during ww2 had no morals. morals are a code of civilisation in order that people can live together in harmony and has nothing to do with religion it is just common sense. why is it that moslem, christian, hindu, buddist countries etc all tend to have similar laws- answer, because religion does not have a monopoly on morals, why is it that the us which is a christian country has the highest murder and violent crime record in the world- is it perhaps that christian morals are lower than those of other religions

Answer 9

Hitler was a vegetarian. Does this mean that vegetarians have no moral values?

Humans are social animals. The evolved to live in groups. There are instinctive foundations for "morality."

Answer 10

You are making the mistake that most religious people make in assuming that your morals come from your God.

My morals come from exactly the same place that yours come from. Society and logical rules that benefit most of mankind.

Christians are taught that God established morals in the bible, but rarely take the time to read up and think about the morals prescribed by God.

Read numbers 5, and ask yourself if your morals allign with your never changing God's? When was the last time you stoned a relative for not being a Christian? When was the last time you told a woman that she has no right to an opinion?

I am guessing (and hoping) that you do none of these things. They are all moral standards set in holy scripture, some in the OT, some in the NT, but we, as a rational society, have rejected many of the morals set by your God, because they are harmful to mankind.

We don't stone people of other faiths because we now understand that murder is worse than differing opinions. We don't force women to drink tainted water after they are accused of cheating, because we understand that purposely infecting someone is abhorrent, and worse than adultery. We don't tell women that their opinion is not valuable, because we know they are, and have progressed beyond nomadic sheep herders.

Your morals are not reflected in the bible, at all, they are just norms set by the society you live in. If you lived in the third world, you might think that murder on behalf of religious belief was not only acceptable by required. But because of the society that you were brought up in, you think differently.