Atheist morality

[The Hunt]

What do you base your morality on?

Some people argue that without a God there can be no morality, what do you think about this?

[Melanie]

I base my morals on what I think is right, what I know to be bad or good.

The argument that without a God there can be no morality implies that people are incapable of making decisions based on what is right and wrong and only upon what they're going to be punished for afterward. Religion acts as a list of guidelines and rules to go by, what people are and are not supposed to do. But that doesn't mean that without religion you can't figure out on your own what's correct.

My morality has been instilled in me from life, from living. I think killing is wrong, unless it's a mass-murderer then I'm all for their death- and am a Straightedge for life. That's just me. That's how I think. It's based upon what I've seen in my lifetime so far. What I've learned. Not what's been drilled into my skull from birth. It didn't have to be.

So, yeah, long post. Haha. Sorry.

[The Hunt]

If your morality can be based on what you think then anything can be justified as long as that person believes themself that it is moral.
Are a mass murderer's actions moral because he believes them to be so?

(and don't worry, I've seen much longer replies than that)

[Melanie]

How can you define morality, then? It changes from human to human. People can think that anything is moral, depending on who they are. So, yeah, that mass murderers actions are moral to him. It may not be to us, but to that specific human being it's fine.

Morality, wow, that's quite a concept

One's morality is never the same as another's morality. It's sort of a part of being a human, I guess. What you think is correct will never be the same as another's perceptions.

(Yeah, I'm a cynic... Sorry)

[Jason Williams]

Are you an actual Atheist or are you playing devils advocate? Let's take Christianity on,. because I am a former Christian,. currently an Atheist. There is a form of Christianity that will allow you to do anything that you wish. Want to rape kids? Become a Catholic priest. They will spend a fortune protecting you. Want death? Become a pro-capital punishment hard nosed hard core Fundamentalist Christian. Anything you can think of that is immoral is a part of some Christian belief somewhere and they give it an alibi. They just say that they are the true belief and the other guy got it wrong. I have known preachers say they didn't believe in something and then turn around and do the same thing. And I have seen it over and over and over again. The so called Christians of today believe less that Atheists do. Because belief is what you do. Not how many things you can memorize. Christian churches are to a large extent places of lies. The deny the people that they hate that have been Christians like Hitler and claim people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. acted Christ-like in their peaceful ways. But they both got their ideas about non-violence from the Sikh religion. Yet the Christian faith acts like they are following the examples of Christ when they got their ideas to never ever ever be violent from another belief. True they did a better at being like Christians than 99.99999% of the Christians out there. 

Then again as I said I don't know where you stand. From the point of view of a religious apologist or as an Atheist who is playing devils advocate.

[The Hunt]

What are we doing having a philosophical debate at this time?

"people would've figured out that it's wrong to kill people in the end"

Why do you assume this to be true?

[Betsy C.]

If you've read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, you'll have come across an approach to morality and altruism that I believe to be true. Essentially, humans have evolved through genetic selection to show preference for certain kinds of competition. We won't needlessly brutalize others until provoked, partially because we may need their assistance in the future. In the end it's all for the preservation of our own genetic material. Makes sense. "I'll be nice to you so you won't screw me over."

I was also just thinking about how being an atheist lets life have its own sparkle. When remarkable phenomena are attributed to a mythological being we have little (no) control over, doesn't it make that phenomena mundane? Alternately, when researchers and scientists are able to figure out what makes things happen (or haven't even decided out how to "discover" it), you go "WOW, that's frickin' AMAZING. What else is going on that we haven't figured out yet???"

[The Hunt]

I like your enthusiasm =D

[CD]

We won't needlessly brutalize others until provoked, partially because we may need their assistance in the future

As a rule of thumb, yes.  But there are some acts of brutality that are unprovoked and unfortunately these are common enough to question this logic. What we might need to consider is that if provocation is the prerequisite for brutality, then it the source of provocation may be displaced from the target of brutality.  It's the old "taking it out on someone else who doesn't deserve it" phenomena.

When remarkable phenomena are attributed to a mythological being we have little (no) control over, doesn't it make that phenomena mundane?

I tend to agree with that.  "God did it!"  Yeah, and then so what?  But some people get a kick out of the possibility that on the other side of the rainbow, there's a unicorn.  I'm not saying that wouldn't be very very cool if it were true, but...why isn't the rainbow awesome on it's own....

Alternately, when researchers and scientists are able to figure out what makes things happen (or haven't even decided out how to "discover" it), you go "WOW, that's frickin' AMAZING. What else is going on that we haven't figured out yet???"

Yeah,  this another reason why rainbows are awesome on their own.  "Prismatic effects" and then going into the "what is light" question and "wave particle duality" and then a whole bunch of other stuff about quantum mechanics and astrophysics just to say "this is where rainbows come from, and not to mention everything else" and it's definitely,  woah, man this universe is some seriously tripped out stuff....awesome. 

/rant  *thinks about googling some astronomy stuff*

[Joseph/Nerdylation]

I think it's utter crap. "Do unto others as you would have done unto you," oh thank you lord for stating the obvious standard of being a decent human being. how did we get along before you came along you king of kings?

when my grandmother read me that line from her bible, I asked her "what kind of douchebag* would do otherwise?"

*that probably wasn't the word I used at the time.

[Bella]

I, like most people, base my morals on what I believe is right, and Melanie kind of said everything.

Except I don't believe in killing anyone, no matter what they've done. Hard Labour and solitary confinement are the only ways to go, because death is what some people want. I think living with remorse (or in solitary confinement with only bread and water) for what you've done is worse than dying. If we'd killed Hitler, he'd just get what he wanted.

[Jennifer Sutphin]

Theists claim that they get their morals from religion, but that’s just not the case.
They want to make their religion sound good so they claim that they have the answers to what is right and wrong. But the truth is morals are instilled into us by our society. Your upbringing, who raises you and what is told to you by the media influence your morals. Nobody needs God to tell them that murder and stealing (among other things) are wrong, you learn that just by living. For example if you were raised to believe that abortion is wrong or vice versa, then that’s probably what you will think your whole life.

[XOX]

I do not believe in morality, as I tend to think it is just social construct guideline with no timeless and umiversal standards. So I have none.

I believe in ethical guideline and the respect of human rights as state in UDHR and international human rights laws.