Stereotyping and morality

[Jenny A]

So, I have listened to many agnostics and atheists. Many are angry and for various reasons. One of the reasons that they are angry is because of stereotyping. A recent observation, is that stereotyping isn't as highlighted in social discourse in the mainstream media as much as it seemed to be when i was in my teens during the 80's. Racism is still a major focus in the media but more general stereotyping does not seem to be an educational focus and I think it should be.

You think racism and stereotyping is primarily an atheist concern? Interesting, but why?

One stereotype that really makes a very close friend of mine, who is agnostic, very angry is the assertion that atheists have no real morality without biblical law. Or it is just made up upon personal preference. Stereotyping is a human error and frailty that is widespread.

Yes, telling people they have no morals tends to make them angry. Not too surprising that. When I tell Christians that I don't approve of much of the morality in the Bible, they tend not be very happy either. Go figure.

Here is what Saint Paul wrote a long time ago.

Romans 2:14
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

So, here, a chief apostle in the bible, asserted that "the Law" was not necessary to have the things of the law "written in the heart." In the age of the internet and mass media so many Christians have taken it upon themselves to represent and teach the Gospel but many are not qualified to do so. Instead many are repeating ill-founded arguments that are directly refuted within the bible as if they were Gospel truth, because they have zeal for God but poor Christian education. But modern atheists in developed nations have not only "Law", but also real hearts and minds that have the capacity to develop sound moral code even if "the Law" were absent in society, such as it may be in some under developed regions of the world.

Yes, most people have a built in sense of morality, plus a cultural one. The problem with the morality in the Bible, is that the culture it was written in was rather barbaric.

I'm not worried about being judged in the hereafter though because I don't think there is a hereafter. It's here and now I worry about.