Agnostic.com

95 16

So where do you get your morality from if you’re an atheist?

Anyone ever get this silly question when a believer finds out you don’t drink the cool-aide? Some people can be, depending on how rural the scenery it seems, downright shocked we exist and that they are actually speaking to one.
I have different responses to the question posed in these situations depending on my mood.... but I’m curious to hear what you guys say when you encounter a question like ...”Where do you get your morals if you have no god?”

TheHitch 4 Sep 29
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

95 comments (26 - 50)

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

4

My response:
"Intellect, would you like me to explain what that is?"

4

I use to answer, "every person beyond the age of 12, knows the differance in whats right, and what is wrong", ....unless that person is insane, mentally deficient, or religious.....then they have to be told.

4

from and up bringing and something called common sense ,treat others the way you want to be treated

4

Ken, a 66-year-old psychologist from Portland, Oregon. His first message:

"I really like your playful, creative, giving being. You're more "spiritual" than most religious people. I'm curious how an "atheist" can live that way."

My response after Skyping with him:

Ken,

Yesterday a man I used to date, Rich, dropped by as I was kneading four loaves of bread. With a master degree, Rich is highly intelligent and an atheist. Unlike you, Rich immediately saw the insult in your message.

I told Rich you could not understand how I can have loving kindness without attending church and believing in a god. "I get asked that by Christians all the time," Rich replied.

Treating people with kindness and respect is a series of daily choices. I don't need a book or fear of an invisible deity to teach me to behave. At age four, I realized when I am nice to people, they are nice in return.

I would never corner Christians and demand that they explain themselves. Yet you and your compatriots think this is acceptable behavior.

Christians who don't know me often demand, as you did, that I explain:

  1. Why I am an atheist.

  2. How the universe began (as if being an atheist automatically makes me an astrophysicist). "Nobody knows," I reply. "Science is advancing every year."

  3. What happens when people die. "Nobody knows," I reply.

  4. What is "spirituality."

You may think your questions were unique. They were not. Rich and I both find being grilled by Christians rude and tiresome.

4

I get my morality from the same place Christians do, I just don't lie to myself about where that place is, as they do.

4

Jerry Falwell jr
Donald Trump
Mitch Mcconnell
Cardinal Bernard Law
Jimmy Swaggart
Eric Trump
Jared Kushner

Idk, so many holy people to choose from, they are all helpful in my morality quest

twill Level 7 Sep 29, 2020

Not to mention that they are all fuckin’ assholes.

You missed pope Francis.

4

From thinking and caring.

4

Instinct developed by evolution of our ancestors who depended on each other to survive and thrive. As we still do.

MsAl Level 8 Sep 29, 2020

Cooperative living is more specifically defined as our human NURTURING birthright of Atheism Feminism and language ....most humans are kind and lifelong protectors of the young & aging moreso that most other mammals

4

What does being an atheist have to do with morality?

4

...from that same feeling that keeps you from stomping on frogs.. I’ll tell them I’ve never had a problem with morals, but have to wonder about those who seem only to ‘behave’ for fear of being watched or punished. ‘I do right because it’s right.’

Varn Level 8 Sep 29, 2020

True. As sad as it is there are those who are just by nature not good. As far as I’m concerned I don’t give a shit about what anyone’s personal beliefs are, what’s most important is their character and what they stand for as individuals. If they are controlling, manipulative, overly sensitive and easily offended that’s a good telltale that they are trouble.

I had to stop the frog thing. They stick to my fur.

4

I get it at Amazon

4

Everywhere else, including myself, parents, friends, and the cartoon He-man.

Mvtt Level 7 Sep 29, 2020
3

"Where do you get your morals from if you have no god," WELL if any person does NOT know the answer to that question I'd have to posit that,
a) they've spent their entire life living in a bubble or under some rock, or,
b) been so indoctrinated into religion and religious beliefs that they have graduated to the top of the list for the Darwin Awards.
Geez Louise, all one needs do is to read the 'holey babble' from cover to cover to see that morality DEFINITELY does NOT come from religion nor the Invisible, Imaginary Sky Daddy Gawd.

3

Believers form this question in their mind when they hear the denunciation of atheists from the pulpit. The priest claims atheists have no morals, saying or implying that they violate the morals Christians supposedly have. The priest's claim is pure hate-mongering. That a believer actually responds with the inferred insult is, in the best case, a clumsy response to the nagging suspicion that the priest is full of shit.

3

For an atheist, morality is the BS the believers pull out of their butt. If you look at behavior of Christians, it is apparent they behave worse or much worse than non-believers. Belief is the inculcation of immorality, but of a particular type: gross selfishness, extreme dishonesty, sexual perversions, white hot bigotry, and so much more. Atheists have ethics and reflect on their actions; they don't rely on a god to give them a pass in exchange for loyalty.

3

Because God murders people and so do his followers

bobwjr Level 10 Sep 29, 2020
3

I get it all the time. It's my favorite to answer.

Deb57 Level 8 Sep 29, 2020
3

The application of reason ...

3

I tell them somethign along th lines that if they are oly good or do the right thing because they fear god's punishment, then they are not actually really all that moral. A moral person is good or does the right thing because it makes a better world, not because they fear burnhing in hell for all of eternity.

Morality.......Doing what is right regardless of what your told.

Religion........Doing what your told regardless of what is right.

@SeaRay215ex Thanks. I plan to steal that for future use.

@SeaRay215ex So true!

"If you don't do bad things ONLY because of your religion, then you are a psychopath on a leash!" (Read that on here somewhere)

3

The first thing that comes to mind is having empathy.
Which reminds me of a great quote: "If you can't tell the difference between right and wrong, you don't lack religion, you lack empathy".
There are some other things as well, but non of it came from religion. for me at least.

3

Before answering I'd request a description of what they call morality. What evidences morality for you? What are moral attributes to you?

With little variance they answer things like honesty, loyalty, respect, love and caring for others, degrees of selflessness, sharing etc.

I respond that those attributes are often exemplified better by animals than humans. Where do our animal cousins learn their morality, when they never set paws in churches, mosques or synagogues?

Morality is instinctual and self/regulating when not hijacked by teachings of false, anti-life and love, anti-Nature 'principles' before we have a chance to develop unmolested by 'religion'. Conscience is a broken, twisted morality mechanism, struggling in the theological morass to find and serve an undamaged Nature.

3

Mr Peabody and his boy Sherman, fractured fairy tales, bugs Bunny and Wiley Coyote.

3

An anthropologist (Could be Margret Mead but I may be wrong) said that the start of mankind was finding evidence of people who had a broken bone that had healed. That was when humans started to look after each other, to help the injured and possibly the sick, to care about others. So my morals come from caring about others and trying to help them. There is a point at which my help would stop (if they bite the hand that feeds them)

3

Given that the God of the Bible is a genocidal maniac with catastrophic anger management issues, I see no reason to take any of my morals from said god.

Yea, the fear of the Red Man with horns, a pointy tail and a pitchfork and his brothers Belial and Lucifer and Beelzebub along with that “God” also.

Tales of Morbid Brains and delusional minds.

ha you guys know none of that stuff is in there right

3

Having a God , does not necessaily make you a moral person . Not having a God , does not make you a bad person . We each have to live with the person , we chose to be . We develope our personalities , beginning with what we learn from our parents and our siblings . Our government , creates laws , which unfortunately , are not always equally fair to everyone . That's when society demonstrates against the ruling powers . Change is extremely slow , but it can happen . In some instances , obeying the law , is not moral .

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:538728
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.