Atheism
“It is possible for atheists to be as moral as religious believers.”
Moral: concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.
In response to this statement, we first should look at the definition above. I don’t believe that you have to be religious to have morals. Growing up some of us are raised to believe in a religion and God. As we get older it may not be the way we choose to live. We may need more than what we read or what is told to us. Sometimes we hear or see things that happen that are dishonest among the religions whether it be priests, teachers, or someone of authority and the morality of these religions come in to question. People are so quick to point out others wrong doings without first checking themselves. Some, not all, religious people who see themselves as authorities to others are the first ones with no moral value. I was raised catholic all my life as were my children, but there are so many issues that I could talk about, but this is not the forum for that. However, I will say that I absolutely agree with that statement. I don’t believe that you have to believe in a God to have morals.
Atheists believe that values, including morality, come from people like themselves; the values and morality are the same whether one believes in gods or not. The moralities found in scriptures of various religions are remarkably similar, even if the theology is very different. The common threads of morality in these different theologies are the people who wrote them. Atheists, just like any of those people, share the same sense of morality. The morality of atheists is in a sense more noble by definition than the morality of theists. While theists believe that god will punish them for immoral acts and reward them for moral acts, atheists have no motivation to be moral other than their own innate sense of morality. It is morality for its own sake, not out of fear for punishment or desire for reward.
Moral: concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.
In response to this statement, we first should look at the definition above. I don’t believe that you have to be religious to have morals. Growing up some of us are raised to believe in a religion and God. As we get older it may not be the way we choose to live. We may need more than what we read or what is told to us. Sometimes we hear or see things that happen that are dishonest among the religions whether it be priests, teachers, or someone of authority and the morality of these religions come in to question. People are so quick to point out others wrong doings without first checking themselves. Some, not all, religious people who see themselves as authorities to others are the first ones with no moral value. I was raised catholic all my life as were my children, but there are so many issues that I could talk about, but this is not the forum for that. However, I will say that I absolutely agree with that statement. I don’t believe that you have to believe in a God to have morals.
Atheists believe that values, including morality, come from people like themselves; the values and morality are the same whether one believes in gods or not. The moralities found in scriptures of various religions are remarkably similar, even if the theology is very different. The common threads of morality in these different theologies are the people who wrote them. Atheists, just like any of those people, share the same sense of morality. The morality of atheists is in a sense more noble by definition than the morality of theists. While theists believe that god will punish them for immoral acts and reward them for moral acts, atheists have no motivation to be moral other than their own innate sense of morality. It is morality for its own sake, not out of fear for punishment or desire for reward.