Atheists and Morality?

Question

I have seen many questions on this topic lately. First, let me state that I think atheists can live moral lives...and most likely some lead more moral lives than believers.

But when asked where they get their morality from, most atheists on these questions say their parents taught them. And I think that is true. But were their parents atheists? If not, where do you think they got their morals? Maybe from the Bible...but probably from their parents. But where did they get their morals from?.......

Do you see where I am going with this? That is a fine argument, but if you trace it back far enough, I would say for the large majority of us our morals still came from the Bible/Religion in some form. Now if you can trace your ancestors back say 1000 years and all of them being non-religious...sure then maybe you didn't get them from organized religion as we know it today....but then again maybe you did...you will never know.

Another argument is that they get them from society. Well, we can go through the same exercise with any society...trace it back far enough and where do you think the basis of their laws came from?


So, my question is this.

Atheists, would you agree with the above statements? And if you don't...then where did you get your unique morals from, and do they differ or coincide with societies morals? If they coincide with societies morals...don't you think that is a bit too much of a coincidence?

Yes, I probably shouldn't of said "Bible" and just kept it at "Religion".

Answer 1

My parents are indeed Christian. And yes, seeing that my parents are Christian, as well as the majority of my countrymen, Christianity has had a large impact in my life.

But the real question is, why do you assume "morality" started with Christianity? Why do you assume Christianity has a monopoly on all that is moral? Morality existed long before the Ten Commandments, so why does Christianity get the credit?

Answer 2

Many people’s morals are influenced by the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, and other religious texts. Most Atheists will tell you that they’ve considered these examples, and other sources, and developed their own objective morality rather than blindly following a religious text.

Many Christians will also tell you the same thing, and few rely exclusively on the bible for their morals. For example, most Christians' morals do not include some of the punishments prescribed in the Bible, such as death by stoning for disobeying one’s parents or breaking the Sabbath.

Many things influence morality. The Bible is perhaps one of the biggest influences for Christians, who are about 1/3 of the world population (CIA World Factbook); but you simply can not trace nearly all morality back to the Bible.

Answer 3

I'll give you the argument that our morals more than likely came from a religious book such as the bible. From an atheist's standpoint though, the bible and similar books were all written by men. PERIOD. Good ideas about how we treat each other don't need the promise of heaven or the threat of hell to be recognized as good ideas. Just because YOU were taught that morals came from god doesn't mean they did. The morals that everyone lives with today were not handed down from on high but written down in a book by MEN. Sometimes I think ancient mankind has been given a bum rap for being stupid.....because they obviously weren't... they got a whole SLEW of people to believe in something that there is no proof of.

Answer 4

I don't agree. If you trace it back far enough you'll find the writers of the bible, who used societies moral values to write a book they wanted people to accept. Many people here say they don't take some parts of the bible literally because they were written for a certain time. In other words, they suited the morality of the time but no longer suit the moral values we hold today. This points towards the bible taking it's moral values from society, not the other way round.

Answer 5

where did the people written about in the bible get their morals from? and what do you imagine morality is about anyway? i don't imagine that all moral direction MUST come from a heavenly dictation. most moral codes caught on by being strictly enforced by a monarch, who, if he or she was good, tried to fathom ways that people could all get along within the kingdom. a moral code that extends to all mankind is still not even being realized by the most "religious", because they seem pretty stuck on thier own way.
but if each of us exhibited a little awareness and a little thought, it doesn't take much to realize a morality based on the simple fact that in order to survive, we MUST find a way to peacefully coexist and interact with those around us. something isn't just "immoral" for no reason; it has a real detrimental effect somewhere in someone else's life, and if there was no restraint among us, we would all be getting back at each other for this, that, and the other.

so, to put it shortly; morality arose in people as a useful tool in a functional society, kind of like language.

Answer 6

I get what you're saying and you're right. You can probably trace atheists' morals back to some one who got their morals from the bible and passed them down. Now, think back before there was a bible. How did people know how to be moral? It's the simple question "would I want someone doing this to me?" What is right and what is wrong has long been defined by that question. Although many things can be traced back to things that are in the bible a lot of it is in the book because of what people knew BEFORE that book was written.

Answer 7

1. Moral-type behavior is seen in other primates, excluding religious formation.

2. A lot of religious law is derived from secular law. The Code of Hammurabi predated Mosaic Law.

3. There are numerous moral systems dating back to the Ancient Greek philosophers, that did not rely on religious principles. The Greek conquest of the Middle East, caused these philosophies to be introduced. Biblical Christianity is simply Greek philosophy superimposed upon Judaism.

Answer 8

Morality did not start with the Bible, or even religion for that matter. Throughout time, behavior that was beneficial to society became learned as "good behavior."

Now, I'm sure most atheists have religious people in their family trees. So yes, some of their teachings came from religious people. But morality in and of itself arose from people living close to one another, not from religion.

Answer 9

i ask your self, how a philosophical instructor can accept as true with this stupid concept! a million) If ethical in basic terms grow to be the belief of a god and not the rest, it may be dispensable. yet whilst ethical has a purpose, we don't want a god for it! we will additionally locate our very own ethical policies, contained in the comparable way, we hit upon mathematical rules. ethical is a superpersonal concept, like maths. So it quite is by potential of definition no longer the creation of a guy or woman, or maybe no longer a god ones! 2) If we get ethical from the Bible, then the comparable problems with a million) are counting! And: We could no longer appraise the bible morally. I wager, your instructor won't spare ethical... yet i assume, your instructor is an fairly stupid one: whilst he's a philosophical instructor, has he ever examine Kant? Buddha? Kungfutse? all of them have written and shown, that ethical does not come from a god. Buddhists and taoists are additionally atheists.

Answer 10

We all acquire our own morality regardless of the environment where we are raised in. That happened to me.
We can trace our morality far back as Pre-History. Christianity did not invent Morality. Throughout most of the two thousand years of Christianity we saw many immoralities.
The Inquisition for example, just to name one.
Atheism is the result of religious immorality.