Atheists; what do you base your morals on?

[Minimalist]

Atheists; what do you base your morals on?

I for one try to avoid throwing rocks at adulterers. If there is a god and he's that pissed off about it I figure he can handle it himself. A god should not need my help.

[Angrboda]

A sense of duty and praise are not unusual to have even if you have not emotion...I think. I could be wrong, I just don't see any obvious reason for it, unless empathy is paried with emotion here.

"When duty is your friend, then duty is your only friend."

Not sure if it's true. It's just something I said on another forum. Though it's how I feel.

Duty and virtue are large parts of my world; traditional ethics, not so much. I'll note for clarity here that I am not an atheist, and yes, I am mentally ill in ways that are morally relevant.

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And what if a verse from any one of "the Books" conflicted with your innate moral compass? Would you speak out against it?
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You mean "natural urges" For example, a lot of human beings I'm sure feel sexual urges to cheat on their life partner, does that mean it's innate? No, in fact, sometimes they know for a fact what they are doing is wrong, but they do it anyway because they want to satisfy their animalistic desires. But I understand what you mean anyway, yes, I would speak out against things that aren't allowed but which our natural tendencies would prompt us to explore

Those that do wrong, knowing they do wrong, can be controlled. There is nothing so dangerous as a man who believes himself to be in the right.

[Gilgamesh]

As an atheist, I think I speak for all atheists when I say I base my morals on porn.

[justin]

Golden rule, deontology, teleology to name a few

[Neo-Scholastic]

I dont have morals, since the only way to have morals is if an invisible man threatens you to burn in hell forever if you disobey him. My hobbies include stealing, raping and murder.

Typical.

[FallentoReason]

@mo66

I'll answer your question if you answer mine first: is wife beating morally good?

[catfish]

Only when commanded by Divine scripture...

[Whateverist]

Those that do wrong, knowing they do wrong, can be controlled. There is nothing so dangerous as a man who believes himself to be in the right.

Or the more mundane: "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." By Henry David Thoreau apparently though I would have sworn it was Twain.

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I dont have morals, since the only way to have morals is if an invisible man threatens you to burn in hell forever if you disobey him. My hobbies include stealing, raping and murder.

Typical.

Typical of what? A disaffected adolescent? Or just someone with a flippant sense of humor? Wait, is that what you suppose all atheists truly think in their heart of hearts? (How depressing.)

[Minimalist]

Only when commanded by Divine scripture...

Even that is a bit murky, though. Here are 7 side-by-side translations of 4:34 from the koran. Take a few moments to look them over.

http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?...4&verse=34

Judging by the differences it seems to me that "god" could have and probably should have chosen a more specific language than arabic if he was going to deliver any messages but this shit seems to mean whatever anyone wants it to mean. How very much like xtian bullshit it is in that regard!

[Atothetheist]

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/altruism-biological/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism#Sc...viewpoints

These links are to help you understand that certain BASIC moral values are beneficial evolutionarily. Humans are a social species, so we have to form social codes to live by. What's the need to have a morality based on something? Mine in itself is essentially humanism with situational morality in the mix.