Do atheists have morals?

Ahnimus

My atheist brain brought me to the determination that eternal life sucks.

To stop existing is the most peaceful thing that could happen.

People always want to know where they go when they die, but should also ask where they were before they were born.

onelongsong

Ahnimus wrote:

Animals kill for very specific reasons. Not just for fun.

There has been plenty of killing by people that are Christians or follow other religions. Only 1% of the jail population in the USA are Atheists. Only 10% of the USA population are Atheists. The morals of religion don't even work for religious people. People get their morals from experience, not religion.

maybe serial killers kill for fun; but people kill for reason. be it drugs; money for food; and the such. i've personally seen animals kill out of jealousy because another is trying to steal their mate. they don't recognise it as jelousy but it is by deffinition. current studies show 17% of the us population as athiests.
i don't know about the 1% but many are jailed for crimes not associated with morallity. we were given marajuana as both a medicine and mind expander. i don't see it as immoral when it was made illegal after prohibition so J Edgar's men had something to do. many crimes are not a question of morallity but politics.

Ahnimus

onelongsong wrote:

maybe serial killers kill for fun; but people kill for reason. be it drugs; money for food; and the such. i've personally seen animals kill out of jealousy because another is trying to steal their mate. they don't recognise it as jelousy but it is by deffinition. current studies show 17% of the us population as athiests.
i don't know about the 1% but many are jailed for crimes not associated with morallity. we were given marajuana as both a medicine and mind expander. i don't see it as immoral when it was made illegal after prohibition so J Edgar's men had something to do. many crimes are not a question of morallity but politics.

But morality trumps politics in a religious mind, does it not?

I have morals independent of religion. Such as, I should not splash pedestrians with my car. I didn't read that in the bible.

hippiemom

onelongsong wrote:

as a catholic may defend their right to believe? if you state examples of your morals; i will reference them to their roots in religion.
do your morals dictate that you should not steal? the root of this morality is religiously based.
do your morals dictate you should not kill? my answer is the same.

How do you claim to know that the roots of morality are in religion?

chopitdown

puremagic wrote:

What do you mean by this statement?

i mean that usually the get their sense of morality from inside them. for instance. Ask a theist why is murder wrong and they say it's wrong for 2 reasons they feel it is wrong and the structure from which they form their morals says it's wrong (external validation). An atheist may say, murder is wrong b/c "I" feel it is wrong. So maybe internal may have been a better phrase than self centered.

onelongsong

Ahnimus wrote:

My atheist brain brought me to the determination that eternal life sucks.

To stop existing is the most peaceful thing that could happen.

People always want to know where they go when they die, but should also ask where they were before they were born.

my opinions stem from having died and knowing what comes next. the brain lives on and the nothingness i speak of can be compared to solitary confinement.
i don't know of anyone who doesn't question where they came from. if darwin was right; where did the notion of God come from? why did it become so popular and why has a fad lasted thousands of years? because of the size and make up of it's wings compared to the size and shape of it's body; a bee cannot fly under scientific fact. yet they do.

chopitdown

Collin wrote:

I disagree.

you would

perhaps self centered was the wrong phrasing see my above post.

karma defect

Restless Soul wrote:

I just spoke with someone from a scout organisation who told me they don't accept people with no faith as "they don't have morals". Personally I think this is discriminatory and totally bullshit because who are faith-based people to say they are the only ones with morals?

Personally whenever I see a “religious-ista” coming I run a mile because I don’t trust them, or any possible agenda they might have. Religions might have a moral code to live by but anyone can have that. You don’t have to be religious. Why can’t people see the difference!!

/rant.

Sorry, had to vent!

I agree with you. And everyone that believes morals are a thing only religious people have is in my book a person that doesn't know what they are talking about.

onelongsong

hippiemom wrote:

How do you claim to know that the roots of morality are in religion?

i attended a roman catholic college prep and had to take 4 years of theology which included the study of every religion. i'm not saying i'm right; i'm stating my opinion based from this education. i'm not a church goer because i know the flaws of the churchs and churchs are run by man. church does not equal God. knowing God is a state of consiousness. anyone who's practiced transendental meditation can understand this much better. i wish i had the words to explain it better but i'm not that good finding the words. i guess that's why religion has always been such a big mystery.

Ahnimus

onelongsong wrote:

my opinions stem from having died and knowing what comes next. the brain lives on and the nothingness i speak of can be compared to solitary confinement.
i don't know of anyone who doesn't question where they came from. if darwin was right; where did the notion of God come from? why did it become so popular and why has a fad lasted thousands of years? because of the size and make up of it's wings compared to the size and shape of it's body; a bee cannot fly under scientific fact. yet they do.

The ideas of aliens or multiple gods have been around much longer. Clearly you did not die, because you are here now.

onelongsong

karma defect wrote:

I agree with you. And everyone that believes morals are a thing only religious people have is in my book a person that doesn't know what they are talking about.

and i know devote athiests who find religion when they feel or know death is near. others insist they are athiests but are only rebelling. what you believe today may not be what you believe tomorrow. around 1492 the belief that the world was flat changed suddenly.

onelongsong

Ahnimus wrote:

The ideas of aliens or multiple gods have been around much longer. Clearly you did not die, because you are here now.

i had a brain aneurysm burst in my head. i was legally dead. for about 20 minutes. there is no way medically or scientifically that i can be alive.

karma defect

onelongsong wrote:

and i know devote athiests who find religion when they feel or know death is near. others insist they are athiests but are only rebelling. what you believe today may not be what you believe tomorrow. around 1492 the belief that the world was flat changed suddenly.

I'm sorry, but I don't really see the relationship between this quote and what I wrote.
Still I am happy to know the world is round.:D;)

Ahnimus

onelongsong wrote:

i had a brain aneurysm burst in my head. i was legally dead. for about 20 minutes. there is no way medically or scientifically that i can be alive.

Not that you know of. Did you spontaneously spring back to life with no internal bleeding?

onelongsong

Ahnimus wrote:

Not that you know of. Did you spontaneously spring back to life with no internal bleeding?

the internal bleeding was terrible. my last CT scan showed scar tissue to where i should be a vegetable. EEGs show brain damage to where i shouldn't be able to think. pm me your fax and i'll send the surgical report. i don't like doing that but it'll save a lot of back and forth debate here.

Ahnimus

onelongsong wrote:

the internal bleeding was terrible. my last CT scan showed scar tissue to where i should be a vegetable. EEGs show brain damage to where i shouldn't be able to think. pm me your fax and i'll send the surgical report. i don't like doing that but it'll save a lot of back and forth debate here.

I don't need to see your surgical report. Have you considered that you or your doctors just don't understand how it's possible?

If you believe God created you, and made you dependent on your brain to survive. Then if God was going to save you, wouldn't he have to save your brain? Everything within nature follows laws. There has to be a reason you didn't suffer brain damage and you can only have faith that it was a miracle.

Is it not written that God will never reveal to Man his interactions, that if we were able to prove God's existence then God would no longer exist?

Jeanie

WOW!!! What a thread! And so many interesting points of view. I do not believe that God exists for me. Having said that I do believe that He (or She people!:)) does exist for many, many people in many different variants around the world. I don't believe that I am any less moral a person because I do not believe. As far as I am concerned I was born with an inherited knowledge of what is right or wrong. It was given to me in my DNA from my parents and they from their parents, just like eye color and hair color and body type. I also learnt moral behaviour from family, friends and the world as I grew up and continue to grow up and I will continue aquiring this knowledge over my life. I think babies are born with the inherent knowledge of what is right or wrong, what it moral and what is immoral. I have no problem with people holding GOD, Allah, Buddha ***insert religious icon here*** as their moral compass. I just find it is unecissary for my life and I have to admit that evangelical religious people who feel the need to convert me to their way of thinking are very distressing to me. I don't have a problem with them holding their beliefs and I wish they would afford me the same courtesy. Many of my friends and family members are moral, religious people of faith. And many very caring and highly moral people in my life are athiests. I love them all. If people, all people, hold love in their hearts and go forward into the world with love in their hearts then we will all be alright. I just can't pick a team!;) I don't like team sports!;)

onelongsong

Jeanie wrote:

WOW!!! What a thread! And so many interesting points of view. I do not believe that God exists for me. Having said that I do believe that He (or She people!:)) does exist for many, many people in many different variants around the world. I don't believe that I am any less moral a person because I do not believe. As far as I am concerned I was born with an inherited knowledge of what is right or wrong. It was given to me in my DNA from my parents and they from their parents, just like eye color and hair color and body type. I also learnt moral behaviour from family, friends and the world as I grew up and continue to grow up and I will continue aquiring this knowledge over my life. I think babies are born with the inherent knowledge of what is right or wrong, what it moral and what is immoral. I have no problem with people holding GOD, Allah, Buddha ***insert religious icon here*** as their moral compass. I just find it is unecissary for my life and I have to admit that evangelical religious people who feel the need to convert me to their way of thinking are very distressing to me. I don't have a problem with them holding their beliefs and I wish they would afford me the same courtesy. Many of my friends and family members are moral, religious people of faith. And many very caring and highly moral people in my life are athiests. I love them all. If people, all people, hold love in their hearts and go forward into the world with love in their hearts then we will all be alright. I just can't pick a team!;) I don't like team sports!;)

that's a point i didn't cover. a lot of athiests learn morals from parents that are religious. on the other hand; i know children of athiests who are very religious.

karma defect

Jeanie wrote:

(or She people!:))

Have you seen dogma?:D

karma defect

Jeanie wrote:

As far as I am concerned I was born with an inherited knowledge of what is right or wrong. It was given to me in my DNA from my parents and they from their parents, just like eye color and hair color and body type.

Do you think that you were born with the knowledge of right and wrong or with an inner voice? I imagined that you meant the second, but then I thought that you might have meant just what you said.

In that case I am a bit surprised. A person is born blank with the ability to learn to tell right from wrong, one doesn't know it at the start.