In reasonfest recently in Lawrence, KS we had a very interesting panel going on about morality. What I found is one side boiled the argument down to(Obviously christian side), that a Superior deity God, Allah etc, is requirement in order to be a moral person. If you do any action, it is based on religious morality.
How do you escape/defeat this line of thinking. How do you separate morality from religion? Do you think they can't be separated and that with out Bible or other religion, you would not be a moral person.
One of scariest arguments I've ever heard is that "With out bible I would steal and kill people." Like it's only thing stopping these people from going on a rampage.
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You escape it with your general actions as a human being. Have morals, be polite, be honest and sucessful and no one could ever attack you for not being religious.
Morals are innate to humans. There are many moral atheists, so clearly religion does not hold a monopoly on morals. To anyone who says "if there's no god, what's to stop you stealing and murdering", I ask "so without god, you would?" Someone who acts morally simply because they fear god aren't really moral at all.
This isn't an exact quote, forgive me, but Penn Gillette said something along the lines of "If someone asks why I'm not raping, stealing and murdering all I like, I tell them that I do rape, steal and murder all I like. And all I like is never."
there are perfectly good nontheistic grounds for being moral: reason and logic, the notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice do not come from god, they come from us as empathic beings.
I don't think that bible is enough to make man a moral being. Religion has nothing to do with morality. There are millions of religious people who are not making moral stuffs at all. They just use the religion so they will appear good in front of others, yet they are hypocrites. Whether we are atheists or theists we must be moral in every way because it is part of being intellectual and human.
It certainly is not! As the Bible itself states, even the Devil himself can quote scripture. And the Bible does have some pretty immoral acts written right in it, and has been used to justify some even more atrocious things!
Morals are dictated by how well the boundaries of good and bad are defined in our childhood.
If you need religions to defend your morals then you are talking to stupid people or you are a horrible human being in their eyes.
I also believe that the more integrity you have, the least you will have to find yourself defending your point of view on things.If someone is an atheist or agnostic and they are always doing bad things, they are irresponsible and nobody considers them productive or useful, then this person is going to have a hard time not being attacked by others and used as an example of why atheism is wrong in their eyes.
The best way to defend yourself is with the kind of person you are perceived as by others.
Here is a quote that has popped around Facebook a bit and I love it every time I read it.
“You don’t need religion to have morals. If you can’t determine right from wrong, then you lack empathy, not religion.”
I hit "like" :)