(November 23, 2014 at 7:17 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Gee wiz, if you'all want to argue with the metaphor with talk of gills and such then go right ahead. The point is that being good requires the capacity to do so, despite whether you recognize the source of that capacity or not. The virtuous atheist can behave as well as anyone else because all humans have a providential conscience. If people do not look to the Good itself to guide their choices then they look to themselves or others for guidance. That looking elsewhere tends to be self-serving even if it potentially aligns with what is actually good.
Yes, most humans do indeed have an in build morality. It comes from being a social species and evolving as such.
I will give you that many theists managed to be moral despite their holy books.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"