"Atheists do not have morals" is something I've been hearing more and more of lately. I find this to highly offensive, not only to the end that it insults my personal nature, but makes bigoted statements towards the peoples who have no faith in any god or religion. There are several factors wrong with this, and I shall attempt to explain these all out as best I can.
Disclaimer: This is only from my personal stand-point as an implicit atheist, this does not attempt to be a voice for all peoples who would fall under the heading of "atheist"
Atheists don't have a reason to be moral
I haven't heard this all too often, but when I have it's rather confusing. I find morality is merely a respect for life, and well-being of not only myself, but all those living. Generally I have made the mistake of saying just that, and then I am hit with...
Having morals proves God exists
Because I recognize that I do not find comfort in this world, and empathize with the plight of others, this proves a God exists? No, this is a logical fallacy, I shall explain later.
Often these get the following statements tacked on.
Morals require an objective source, and only God can be that objective source.
Atheists can't teach morality without faith.
and many more of the like.
I would like to state that morality comes in two forms, the generally accepted norms of, "Don't like, cheat, steal, or kill" which forms the foundation of civilized culture. Even the most basic forms of community animals try to avoid these things, instead opting for the commonly accepted good deeds such as "Sharing, aiding friends, and commit to benefiting the group"
The second form I see as a culturally subjective form, in humans this is more often imposed by the chosen faith of their region. This is not difficult to find, all it takes is a little digging and you'll see even some of these will share their subjective values, yet I find them to still be subjective since they aren't shared universally.
Now the general claim that having morals proves God exists, or they require an objective source that only God can provide, or any other things that basically state the same thing is totally bogus. I have morals, there is no God in my life, it's really quite simple. I'm sure if a theist were reading this, they'd say, "He is in your life, he just has not revealed himself to you." which implies several things.
(see why I waited to explain this? merges to new subject)
That I have not done one, or more, of the following; Sought God, had my prayers answered, stopped hating God for some perceived misdeed, been properly educated in religious matters, had loving parents, stopped worshiping Satan, given up my ego and accepted I am no god. I'll give you a moment to guess which ones I really haven't.
Done guessing? The answer is all, for you see I was educated in my youth extensively by my father, I tried to find God but never could actually believe in him, never prayed for things, never hated God at any point((in the same manner I don't hate unicorns)), my parents raised me with a fair amount of love, I never even considered worshiping Satan, and most importantly never believed myself to be a deity.
The fact of the matter is I have found a fair number of things in the Holy Bible to be utterly grievous, and immoral, for a book that is supposed to be the divine word delivered to men by the men who put these words to paper. In fact, much of these that are found in the bible shows God to be directly encouraging mankind to do these atrocious deeds. No I won't be citing them because I would have to go read them, and I find the items in question to be highly offensive, and could not encourage people to read these in good conscience.
I know I've done a lot of talking in circles here, but I do hope this has been somewhat informative until now, and this is where I would like to explain exactly what my morals are, both in form and source.
My first moral, is to be fair in all I can bring myself to do. I often find my mind in conflict trying to please myself, and to keep in order. Indeed, this conflict has often been seen to be a focal point in many faiths, so I accept that I am not alone in this plight, I am no special star, I do not have a value greater than that of my fellow man, or that of animals. Indeed, I often bring it upon myself to consciously humble myself before the myriad of life strewn about this planet, I do accept however that while I have no more value than them, they have no more value than I, and this is a part of what gives me hope.
Betterment of humanity, through bettering interconnections. Often the only thing that prevents the furthering of human advancement, is the fear of "them" destroying "us(you)" when in reality there really is nothing more than, "Humans" which should be readily acceptable to all those of faith who want to claim an objective standing to morals. Indeed, "Them" and "us" is the greatest form of subjectivity, and therefore you segregate, which breaks down the interconnections, which prevents advancement.
These are the core morals that I have, the rest of the morals I carry are highly subjective, and aren't easily explained. Should you wish to know them, please send a question to my inbox outlining either situations, or requested fields to give me a framework from which I can provide to you a solid and sufficient answer.
Please, if you found any of this to be confusing, do not hesitate to ask as I am always willing to explain myself in these matters, I feel this information is free to share, and if I do not answer immediately it's only because I haven't formulated the proper response yet, seeing as I would not want to short-change you with a poorly made explanation.
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