Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheists Are Moral… And Believers Often Aren't

Scarlet letter
Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day, from my Facebook page. Pass this on; or don’t; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!

Atheists are moral people, as much as anyone else. And religion is no guarantee of moral behavior. Religious believers lie, steal, cheat, rape, and kill. Religious belief is not only unnecessary for morality — it doesn’t seem to help. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

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Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheists Are Moral… And Believers Often Aren't
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4 thoughts on “Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheists Are Moral… And Believers Often Aren't

  1. vel
    1

    I am wondering if belief in a god is harmful to morality in that if this magical being does nothing to stop what most would consider an evil thing, is that read as tacit acceptance by the believers. Just idle thoughts trying to figure out why the RCC is so filled with pedophiles. Is it that “it must be okay, since God didn’t strike me down”?

  2. 2

    That’s not belief in a god, it’s belief in a priesthood. Because the organization I think you’re attributing all the pedophiles to isn’t the RCC per se, but its priesthood. And Greta and other people have written extensively about the sense of entitlement they seem to have grown from considering themselves responsible for administering God to the masses. As much as we in the West distrust Sunni Islam, they at least saw the danger in this principle and hold all Muslims to be spiritual peers…

  3. vel
    3

    This seems to be the old argument that religion/god isnt’ the problem, it’s the humans. Since humans have come up with religion/god and the priesthood in toto, I find them inseperable.

  4. 4

    ATHEIST ETHICS IN 500 WORDS. John B. Hodges, Dec. 21, 2007.
    How can you have any ethics if you don’t believe in God?
    The question must BE questioned. How can you have any ethics if you DO believe in a god?
    Religious folk misunderstand morality at its roots. Religion teaches a child’s view of ethics, that “being good” means “obeying your parent”. Just as religious faith is believing what you are told, so religious morality is doing what you are told. Religious morality consists of obeying the alleged will of God, an invisible “Cosmic Parent”, as reported by your chosen authority. But obedience is not morality, and morality is not obedience. We can all think of famous people who did good things while rebelling against authority, and others who did evil things while obeying authority.
    Religious folk may be Good Samaritans or suicide bombers, it depends entirely on what their chosen authority orders them to do. If a believer, or a community of same, wishes to make war or keep slaves or oppress women, all they have to do is persuade themselves that their god approves. This seems not to be hard, and no god has ever popped up to tell believers that they were wrong. They do not have a code of morality except by the convenience of the priesthood. What they have is a code of obedience, which is not the same thing.
    Atheism means looking at ethical questions as an adult among other adults. Civic morality is a means of maintaining peace and cooperation among equals, so that all may pursue happiness within the limits that ethics defines. This civic morality is objective. If you want to maintain peaceful relations, don’t kill, steal, lie, or break agreements. As Shakespeare wrote: “It needs no ghost, Milord, come from the grave, to tell us this.”
    Because we are biological beings evolved by natural selection, most of us value the health of our families, where “health” is the ABILITY to survive, and “family” is “all who share your genes, to the extent that they share your genes.” This is also called “inclusive fitness” by biologists. Essentially all living beings are going to seek this, because their desires are shaped by natural selection, and inclusive fitness is what natural selection selects for.
    Because humans are social animals, who survive by cooperating in groups, we have a “natural” standard of ethics: The Good is that which leads to health, The Right is that which leads to peace. A “good person” is a desirable neighbor, from the point of view of people who seek to live in peace and raise families. Most people understand this intuitively. Understanding the logic of it is better. “If you want peace, work for justice.”
    There is a long history of philosophical thinking about ethics. Morality is not based on authority, but on reason and compassion. If I had to recommend just one book on ethics, it would be GOOD AND EVIL: A NEW DIRECTION by Richard Taylor.
    I have a longer essay at http://civic.bev.net/atheistsnrv/articles/definition.html

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