Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 6:21 am

Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 3 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Where do atheists get their morality from?
#1
Where do atheists get their morality from?
How do atheists know what is morally right or morally wrong? Is morality cultural, gut feel, are there any basic principled you can use? Opinions?
Christianity is grounded in history, the facts of science, the rules of logic, and verifiable biblical truths.
Reply
#2
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
"Where do atheists get their morality from?"

Same place as you do. A combination of cultural upbringing, empathy for others, desire for societal acceptance and other similar factors. As any other social species, humans demonstrate tolerance for co-operative members of the group and abhorrence for those who abuse and manipulate the group. That's why we applaud someone for helping an old lady across the road and lock up someone who mugs that old lady for her pension. In less enlightened times, people who violated the social mores for personal gain would have been punished by death or banishment from the group. This still happens in what we in the so-called civilised world (and America) might consider less enlightened nations, and most notably in the animal kingdom among other social species.

Any good to you?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
Reply
#3
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
We use exactly the same thing you Christians really use despite the thick coat of muddy delusions you put on it - human experience. But we:

1. Are honest and hard nosed about it.

2. Make far, far better use of it.
Reply
#4
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
(August 30, 2012 at 11:51 pm)Chuck Wrote: We use exactly the same thing you Christians really use despite the thick coat of muddy delusions you put on it - human experience. But we:

1. Are honest and hard nosed about it.

2. Make far, far better use of it.
What do you mean by make better use of it? I don't know what that means.
I like your avatar, it reminds me of the Cambrian explosion, something I'm rather fond of. Smile
Christianity is grounded in history, the facts of science, the rules of logic, and verifiable biblical truths.
Reply
#5
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
(August 31, 2012 at 12:07 am)Atom Wrote: I like your avatar, it reminds me of the Cambrian explosion, something I'm rather fond of. Smile

Looking forward to seeing your fondness expressed in some future thread.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
Reply
#6
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
I think the shape of bananas is a much better argument against evolution the the CE
Reply
#7
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
(August 30, 2012 at 11:51 pm)Stimbo Wrote: "Where do atheists get their morality from?"

Same place as you do. A combination of cultural upbringing, empathy for others, societal acceptance and other similar factors. As any other social species, humans demonstrate tolerance for co-operative members of the group and abhorrence for those who abuse and manipulate the group. That's why we applaud someone for helping an old lady across the road and lock up someone who mugs that old lady for her pension. In less enlightened times, people who violated the social mores for personal gain would have been punished by death or banishment from the group. This still happens in what we in the so-called civilised world (and America) might consider less enlightened nations, and most notably in the animal kingdom among other social species.

Any good to you?
I can't disagree with most of what you said. I'm not sure I agree with this idea I think you said - that animals put each other to death or banish each other for violating social mores for personal gain. Most animals don't seem to have social mores so much as patterns of reactions. Some more intelligent social animals do seem to have something like primitive culture.

(August 31, 2012 at 12:16 am)idunno Wrote: I think the shape of bananas is a much better argument against evolution the the CE
OK, you got by attention. The shape of bananas?
Christianity is grounded in history, the facts of science, the rules of logic, and verifiable biblical truths.
Reply
#8
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
(August 30, 2012 at 11:39 pm)Atom Wrote: How do atheists know what is morally right or morally wrong? Is morality cultural, gut feel, are there any basic principled you can use? Opinions?
Yes, for atheists, morality is about desires, which are about emotions/feelings. Like the other animals, all our impulses are driven by emotional goals. In theory, we can use reason and science to find the best way to satisfy those emotional goals. But ultimately it still falls to an individual's subjective emotions to decide what we actually do.

Whether atheists maintain cultural norms depends on their political leanings: conservatives value tradition because they desire stability, liberals can't wait to tear down tradition because they desire freedom. It's not clear what direction atheism as a movement is headed.

This emotion-driven model of human behaviour (sometimes called the Belief-Desire model) was advocated by philosophers like David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Epicurus, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and apparently even Aristotle.

Note, even Christians follow this model: they seek emotional rewards in heaven, and feel the love of fellowship and God. They are as equally hedonistic (for want of a better word) as atheists.

Here are two modern day advocates of emotion-driven morality:

Jonathan Haidt: The Five Moral Foundations (skip to 4:40 if in a hurry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc#t=320s

Richard Carrier: Is happiness the Goal of Morality?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctfh3O7ofl0
Reply
#9
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
(August 30, 2012 at 11:39 pm)Atom Wrote: How do atheists know what is morally right or morally wrong? Is morality cultural, gut feel, are there any basic principled you can use? Opinions?

The Golden Rule predates religious morality. It has been used by social animals (including man) for thousands of years.

Tsze-kung asked, saying, "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of
practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not Reciprocity such a
word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."

— Confucius, Analects XV.24
[Image: ascent_descent422.jpg]
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and celt
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed

Red Celt's Blog
Reply
#10
RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
(August 31, 2012 at 12:16 am)Atom Wrote:
(August 31, 2012 at 12:16 am)idunno Wrote: I think the shape of bananas is a much better argument against evolution the the CE
OK, you got by attention. The shape of bananas?

lol, sorry it is a joke Tongue


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Morality Kingpin 101 5275 May 31, 2023 at 6:48 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  A Case for Inherent Morality JohnJubinsky 66 6048 June 22, 2021 at 10:35 am
Last Post: John 6IX Breezy
  why do people still have faith in god even after seeing their land turned into dust? zempo 8 1425 June 20, 2021 at 8:16 am
Last Post: onlinebiker
  Morality without God Superjock 102 8593 June 17, 2021 at 6:10 pm
Last Post: Ranjr
  How to beat a presupp at their own game Superjock 150 11629 April 16, 2021 at 4:05 pm
Last Post: arewethereyet
  Morality Agnostico 337 34592 January 30, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  Miracles and their place, and Atheists. Mystic 35 4325 October 4, 2018 at 3:53 am
Last Post: robvalue
  Famous people losing their religion: stories Fake Messiah 14 2692 May 21, 2018 at 10:13 am
Last Post: Clueless Morgan
  Developing systems of morality, outside of religious influence. Kookaburra 28 4073 March 20, 2018 at 1:27 am
Last Post: haig
  I enjoy far right atheists more than lgbt marxist atheists Sopra 4 2177 February 28, 2018 at 9:09 pm
Last Post: Edwardo Piet



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)