Replacing Religious Morality

[Esquilax]

And yes, I do not hurt people because God says not to, but also because I would not want to be hurt. Treating others as you would want to be treated.

Well, there you go! That's what I find most strange about being asked where I derive my morals, because I doubt that the christian doing the asking really thinks their god made its moral laws based on nothing, like an arbitrary set of random rules, just to have them. They must think there's some practical reason behind them that has applications in the real world, surely?

Why wouldn't an atheist also be able to see those practical uses?

But there are times when pain is unavoidable, yes? How do you figure those situations out if you are only going off of the pain theory?

And what about in situations where there is no pain to be dealt with? Theft? Adultery? Deception? Are these things still immoral, and how do you know?

There's more kinds of pain than just the physical. Theft causes material harm to the victim, if everyone did it society wouldn't function as well, therefore, it's immoral. Adultery causes emotional pain, and while it's lower order in the sense that it won't cause anything in the way of material damage, those feelings count for something. It's also something of a breach of agreement, which is generally frowned upon. Deception, same deal: at the very least, there's emotional pain involved, though people to deceive with motives, mostly.

And what do you do when someone disagrees with you?

We can figure these things out; we're able to evaluate these things with regards to their pros and cons, consequences... all manner of things. Sure, it's something that needs some thought, and there'll always be disagreements, but there's only a finite set of actions possible in any given situation, and one of them has to be the best possible course. Not getting there right away just means we're learning through out imperfections.

Isn't it more noble to think things through like that, than to turn to someone else to just tell you what you should believe?