Dr. King, Argument from Authority

[Crossless2.0]

Christians claim to need to be taught the things that atheists are perfectly capable of reasoning out themselves without being told, yet they simultaneously claim that morality issues from their religion.

That's a blatant mis-characterization if ever there was one. The only reason you can "reason it out" is because you already have a God given conscience. Religion makes this unsubstantiated claim explicit.

Fixed that for you.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The only reason you can "reason it out" is because you already have a God given conscience. Religion makes this fact explicit.

Religion does no such thing. Firstly, it cannot demonstrate the existence of a single god conclusively. Secondly, it cannot demonstrate whence conscience arises. Thirdly, religion does not traffic in facts.

[Esquilax]

That's a blatant mis-characterization if ever there was one. The only reason you can "reason it out" is because you already have a God given conscience. Religion makes this fact explicit.

Unfortunately, your own holy book contradicts you, there; if we already had a means of knowing what is and is not moral, in your religion's narrative, then why would god need to approach individual men and issue commandments in the form of explicit instructions? Or incarnate himself as Jesus and instruct the people on moral issues? Someone is either being wrong, or redundant.

Besides, just because you have never made the claim that the bible is the sole source of viable morality, without which nobody would know right from wrong, doesn't mean nobody has ever said that, so it's not a mischaracterization. You christians have this weird habit of insisting that your specific ideas about your religion are the only ones that have ever been expressed, but that's simply not true; I've heard christians express the exact sentiment I spoke of in my post.

Oh, and evidence that my conscience is god given, please? Or is this another random theistic assertion?

[Roxy904]

Christians claim to need to be taught the things that atheists are perfectly capable of reasoning out themselves without being told, yet they simultaneously claim that morality issues from their religion.

That's a blatant mis-characterization if ever there was one. The only reason you can "reason it out" is because you already have a God given conscience. Religion makes this fact explicit.

What about sociopaths, and others like them? They don't have a conscience. Did your supposedly perfect God forget to give them a conscience? What about consciences that believe they are doing the right thing, even when it involves mass murders of innocent people?

[Ryantology]

How can religion make that "fact" explicit when it is entirely incapable of making the "fact" of a god's existence explicit? Also, which god? Your use of 'religion' in this context is a weasel word used to artificially inflate the validity of your claim. You are a member of a specific and exclusive religion and you worship a single god, believing that all others are as false as we do.

[robvalue]

Right. So Chad is saying we're already born with all the morality we need. So why do most christians claim the exact opposite? What is the purpose of religion and the bible if we're all good to go from the start?

Also, just stating stuff about an unproven God is not an argument.

Any theist want to weight in on a moral teaching from xianity not obvious to a balanced atheist? If you can't think of one, what does that say about the link between religion and morality?