(March 4, 2015 at 3:58 am)Void Wrote: [...] As far as I understand, atheism is based on a disbelief of gods, which don't automatically point in the direction of a moral code.
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Whereas belief in god/gods points in a direction? No, bending over for an imaginary super-power is not in any way an acceptance of a particular moral code. Otherwise we wouldn't have so many religions and denominations, allegedly acknowledging the same god, yet following drastically different "moral codes".
Morality is man-made and deals with human to human interaction. The idea of god/-s is just a tool, used by ruling classes to instill and enforce certain models of social behavior in subordinate masses. Just because someone doesn't believe in an invisible nanny, watching and judging them at all times, doesn't mean they don't have to construct/choose/follow certain set of ethical rules, ensuring that they fit in whatever society they happen to belong to. The only people, of whom it can be said that they have "no morals" are psychopaths and perhaps sufferers from few other mental disorders and illnesses.
Religions (not gods themselves) tend to offer "set menus" of morality, for people who'd rather avoid - at least some of - responsibility for their own ethical choices. They still make those choices - even if not always consciously - they just pretend they have no real choice at all, because they're bound to oblige some sort of omnipotent overlord.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
