Can /does Atheism offer a moral foundation?

Answer 1

Atheism denies that a moral foundation exists. What is left is whatever makes us feel good.

I was have a discussion once with a group of atheists about morality and one of them seemed to have an epiphany. She said, "I just realized that we all do what we feel like doing", There was suddenly complete silence. She dug herself in deeper when she quickly added "of course, what we feel like doing is the right thing to do".

That is the inevitable result of an absence of moral authority over us. We behave as we feel like behaving and then rationalize and justify that behavior until we can call it at least basically good. If we make up our own rules and we are our own judge, how can we lose? This is why even criminals plotting their next crime think themselves to be basically good.

Answer 2

When you get down to it people do not get their moral foundation from atheism, or a belief in God for that matter. Morality is more dependent of societal attitudes. If you were to go back a hundred years you would be shocked by what the people believed. Morals are actually very fluid in society. Atheists take the same cues as everyone else.

Think about it, lets use a christian example: Ephesians talks about slaves obeying their masters.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.


At a certain point most countries around the world said slavery is wrong. If you derived your morality from this text you would say that the slaves were wrong to flee. In fact the entire letter to Philemon deals with an escaped slave being encouraged to return to his master on the basis of the slave's Christianity.

No one endorsing slavery today would be thought of as moral. This is not a slam toward Christianity merely a demonstration that morals come from different sources. Morals are fluid for everyone.

Answer 3

Morals do not come from religions. Morals come from living in a society. It is simply a "code" to live by when in social situations.

How can anyone claim moral foundations only occur from religion? What about the religious leaders who have recently been put in prison. They lacked a moral foundation! What about the atheist that lives in my community who has never harmed a living soul and has always been generous to the community. She simply does not believe in god and I believe she is the most moral person I have ever met.

Answer 4

Well they do not tout spiritual nonsense and try to cram it down peoples throats as a way of proving moral superiority, so I would think that is moral foundation enough...The Atheists that I know are very spiritual, but abhor religion and the moral objectifications which religious spout with little to no regard for others feelings or beliefs.
Any religion who does not teach that love for all is right, is not a religion that I want to have...But tell that to all of these Morally religious people,and they will sell you the tenth degree to hell, or beyond.
To me it is more spiritual less hypocritical...However I am not an Atheist, just a spiritualist. Not meaning to offend anyone, just stating my beliefs, an innate right I have.

Answer 5

"Atheism" means "a-theism" or "without a belief in God (theism)" therefore it is not a positive philosophical position. It only denotes the condition of being without a belief in God.

It is certainly possible to construct a moral code without a belief in God. For example the philosopher Ayn Rand created Objectivism which she claimed was a philosophy and moral code based purely on reason and her observations about the nature of man. It was primarily a philosophy based on a concept of rational self interest. Wikipedia has a reasonably good summary of its basic tenets.

Whether or not such a philosophy is fully satisfying or convincing is another question. I would generally answer that in the long term it is not, but that is a matter of personal opinion.

lwk

Answer 6

All atheism means is No Gods.
Once you get that into your head you can ask about Secularism, Humanism or even Secular Humanism.
You might also want to consider the logical and legal reasons for moral behaviour. They are mudh more effective than religious arguments, especially considering the numbers of religious believers in the prisons.

Answer 7

I am not sure what the term "moral foundation" would mean.

Do we need some pre-existing verbal statement to know that a society has to control the behavior of its members? Do we need Thou Shalt Not Kill to know that indiscriminate giving in to the impulse to kill another human (or animal for that matter) cannot help the stability or survival of a society?

Moral codification are convenient summaries of past practices. As such they should be respected. But principles that appear in these codifications are not beyond question or discussion.

Answer 8

Does the person who is an atheist have a moral foundation?
atheism itself does not offer a moral foundation, it is the atheists' job to create their own concepts of morality(or just use another one)... its what keeps them from turning into mere beasts of excess...

Edit: somebody thump up allie o, I'm still lvl one so I can't do that... she speaks wisdom

Answer 9

I really can't stand atheists. Not because they don't believe in God. They just seem so full of venom towards those that believe in God and the idea of God. But not only that. They also from what I can see on here just use atheism as a crutch to feel good about themselves, maybe even smug. Their responses seem to have no psychological, emotional, or spiritual depth to them. Just tart little aphorisms that seem to say "nanny, nanny boo boo stick your head in poo poo, I don't believe in God and that makes me super smart and you super dumb." There is no depth or structure or quality of life suggested by their tirades against Christians in particular and other systems of religious belief. I frankly would like to know more about atheism, but I guess there's no point to it. It seems all there is to it is making an affirmation of disbelief in God and taking a stance of disdain for those who think otherwise. Now you'll say "nanny nanny boo boo stop copying me." and I'll say "you quit copying me." having the dialogue depth of 8 year olds instead of sincere, respectful dialogue. As far as this question, the Nazis affirmed in the Nuremberg trials that they committed no crimes from the logic of their point of view. It was argued that that they were being held accountable to moral laws of a higher power which made their actions punishable.

Answer 10

atheism is the lack of belief in a diety

your "moral foundation" comes from your parents, your peers and most people's innate need to do no harm (which is do with survival of the species).

If morals came from religion they wouldn't be quite so relative would they