What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Catholic_Lady]

I meant "we" as in humanity. How do you all, as athiests, believe that us humans can determine morality?"

And Parker's Tan, I'm not uncomfortable at all discussing my views. In fact, I'd LOVE to talk to you guys about it if you genuinely wanted to know. But I just feel like the minute I posted that question to you guys, instead of hearing your answers, a lot of you just immediately jumped to asking me questions in return. And maybe I'm wrong, but they didn't feel like questions in the form of genuine curiosity and discussion, they felt like hostile questions. That's why I had to say a few times, "hey guys, just answer my post lol, don't be so distracted by me and what I believe!"

Keep in mind that Christians come in here constantly claiming to just have a couple of "simple questions". Bear in mind that this "how can you be, or know, good when you don't have faith" is  a tired trope that is too often used to condescend to us -- just as Randy has been doing for the last month.

Your refusal to answer cogent questions makes me wonder exactly how deep your thinking on the matter is at all.  You come in here claiming that objective morality exists, but you offer nothing to support that assertion, and you don't answer questions about the moral dimensions of the god who is after all the reason your Bible was written at all. I weigh the opinions I read here carefully based on what I see you post, but if you're not going to answer these questions, I have no metric for assessing the value of your insights, and it is only natural at that point that I should be more guarded.

I am sorry that you have felt like some of us have been condescending towards you. I cannot speak on their behalf, but I hope I don't give off that same vibe.

Parkers, I will answer your questions. What are your questions?

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Rhythm, like I said. Morality never changed. God never changed. The OT was simply not perfect and not complete. Jesus came partly to show us what God is really like, because we didn't have it perfectly right before that.

God's behavior certainly changed. What of that moral dimension?

 I think I've already answered this by saying I don't believe the stories in the OT actually happened literally as they are written. Meaning, I don't believe things like God telling Moses that he will kill the first born of the Egyptian families. I don't believe any of this "behavior" ever happened.