Maybe I'm not crazy at all.

Maybe YOU are, or perhaps I should say, were.

Stalin Pol Pot and Mao to name just a few moral atheists

it's sad people need morals.

An atheist claiming to have a monopoly on morals? Wow!!

Atheism is void of right and wrong. An Atheist can change his or her mind on morals, based on feelings and popularity. Morals have to originate from outside ones self. If not then the whim of the person is of the greatest consequence.

Morality is different actions or intended actions taken by a subject based on the assumption of these being right or wrong.

It's almost absurd, to me, atheists even claim they have morals. The problem I see is; an athiest who doesn't believe in the supernatural, suddenly believes there's this extraordinary "factor" that keeps them from lying, stealing, killing, or sinning in general. Doesn't that seem odd?

If America went into an economic meltdown and gas became too expensive to buy, food prices soared, the police officers quit because they weren't being funded, and everybody had to scavage or survive in an anarchist society, what would the morals of the atheist be then? In this situational America, if I was passing a hungry person with a cart full of food, whose family was hungry and he needed to feed them, would an atheist do the right thing? What would the right thing be?

The Bible says do not steal. A Christian should ask for food from me, but not steal it. An atheist is bound by no moral code. The societal code would have gone out the window, when the whole thing started. An atheist could lie to get me in a dark alley, kill me, and then steal my food with no moral codes broken. He could just say this is how it is now, I'm adjusting to the changing world. A lot of Christians in this example, would do the same thing the atheist did. The difference is the Christian has a moral duty not to do that. An atheist doesn't have the same moral duty.

I have written on this a few times as an atheist, i wouldn't say we have true morality,
even though the irony there is i have used that analogy, after thinking on it for
a long while now a few things seem to stand out.

In the argument of say religious morality vs an atheists morality there is an inherent
desire to say one is superior to the other, i disagree on one issue, its not that
our morality is superior in any way, its that we are allowed to tell the truth at all times,
it all comes down to honesty, when we see that something is wrong, provided with
evidence that our morality is lacking one could say, we have the ability right then
and there to change said morality to be correct.

Religion preaches from a standpoint of non adaptation, and as evident in every
religion in the world, if they refuse to adapt they will fail and become extinct,
the gay rights issue is where, in modern times, this becomes very apparent,
they don't have any proof at all that there is a moral problem with the issue of
a civil union, it is simply because their book says so, that is not enough in
the eyes of those who use honesty and reason to say its immoral, it gives no
reason for it being immoral other than gods word.......

Our morality tends to be based on facts and well thought out reasons.
Religious morality is sometimes based on facts others times on fantasy.

addygrace: I must reply to this idea, those accusation are unfounded, I would
not kill or steal from you because i am an honest person, i do not need the
threat of eternal torture to be an honest person, you are specifically saying
that you have to have fear to be moral, fear of some profound punishment.
then from there you just jump into a conjecture about how all atheists are
immoral simply because they have no fear of long term punishment, I would
argue that allows us to address reality with the weight it actually deserves.

We do not get to cop out of our morality and say we are forgiven by someone
who is not even involved in a situation, IE if a christian were to steal someones
food all they have to do is ask forgiveness and it will be granted, by that logic
you could rape, murder and steal then on your death bed accept jesus as your
savior and you get a "get out of hell free card".

The point we try to make is you live in reality, deal with reality on real terms, there
are direct consequences for actions, the idea that someone is going to reward
or punish us after death actually leads to dangerous morality. it gives us the idea
that if we follow a certain "moral" god then all is ok, even if he asks us to do immoral
things. that's the very reason most christians don't follow isalm, or other religions that
have just as much "evidence" as they do, they believe their gods idea of morality
is superior and those other fanatics are dangerous because they use their
god to justify bad things...........

Saying that atheist "do good" because they know it's the right thing to do?
Atheists don't even recognize anything divine in each other, themselves or the world.
So explain why they "know" it's the right thing to do?
and don't say the golden rule since we all know where that came from.

As usual people only see the extremes and then overgeneralize.
Kind of like racists do since some __________ people do _______ they must all be _________.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
That's why religious people can often appear so nice and gentle on the outside, but on the inside they are capable of committing the most horrendous acts, even against little children.

You are describing most people in the world. Everybody sins. I'm sure you have skeletons, too.

This lack of empathy

Are you saying everybody lacks empathy? I agree sometimes everybody lacks empathy.

points to a common type of sociopathy which can be found in many religious people.

Do you mean everybody on the planet?

They simply behave how a book tells them to behave because they don't know how to behave without being told.

As an atheist; Do you think it's ok to lie? If not, why? Do you think it's ok to kill? If not, why? Steal? Cheat?

And then they think everyone else has a brain that works just like them; often arguing we all need a book to teach us morality otherwise they think everything would just descend into anarchy... in fact the only people who would descend into anarchy are those who can't function without a book to guide them.

edit on 15/11/2012 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)

Christians actually believe morals are written on mans heart. The reason people know right from wrong is because it's written on their heart. We still has free will. That's why man feels guilt. True guilt, not forced guilt.
When I was a kid I lied on my brother, and he got a whippin'. At the time it seemed valid, but afterward i felt really bad about it. Not because the Bible said I should, not because my parents taught me that, but because it truly hurts my feelings that I actually did that to my brother. He was hurting because of me. I should have been honest and more loving.