Can Godless Atheists Have Moral Values?

[PsyOps]

not really. Society makes its own morals (or ethics, or whatever).

That said, I don't really believe in a higher power and I have morals, so there you are.

You didn't answer the question except to say you don't believe. How can you come to a conclusion that we have a conscience (let alone a society) when our very existence is a result of random and spontaneous chemical interaction? How does that really happen without some intelligent interaction out there?

 

[Xaquin44]

If there's a God, it matters not whether you believe in Him or not for his input into you to be true. So, your ethics would be from Him, either way.

If there is no God, then you have the potential to have the same morals as a skunk, or a cow, or a tiger.

Horse hockey!

If his 'input' is in me, then it's a simple matter of rejecting it. I.e. It has been told to me many times over that god created all this stuff in 6 days, to which I have replied many times over 'ha ha ha ha ha'.

also, potential isn't the same as actuality.

Sure I have the potential to do whatever, but it doesn't mean I will or won't.

 

[This_person]

Horse hockey!

If his 'input' is in me, then it's a simple matter of rejecting it.

Fair enough. Prove it by rejecting your DNA and substituting something different.

also, potential isn't the same as actuality.

Sure I have the potential to do whatever, but it doesn't mean I will or won't.

My point is that we're either different from dogs and pigs and skunks, or we're not. That's all.

 

[Xaquin44]

Fair enough. Prove it by rejecting your DNA and substituting something different.

I'LL GET RIGHT ON THAT!

My point is that we're either different from dogs and pigs and skunks, or we're not. That's all.

We're all different (everyone and everything) in ways. Only someone closed minded would only find one way of that happening.

 

[Toxick]

I have to say this is the most pointless and annoying thread I've had the misfortune to read in quite a long time.

 

[This_person]

I'LL GET RIGHT ON THAT!

It should be easy, right?

We're all different (everyone and everything) in ways. Only someone closed minded would only find one way of that happening.

I realize I'm unique (just like everybody else). My point is that humans are on a higher plain, have a higher status in my mind than other animals. There's a reason we're smarter and more capable than all of God's other creatures. Morals are just one part of that.


Yes, I know Lassie saved Timmy's butt from the well over and over again. What a moral creature. But, I'm talking reality.

 

[Xaquin44]

I have to say this is the most pointless and annoying thread I've had the misfortune to read in quite a long time.

I'll say!

 

[PsyOps]

I have to say this is the most pointless and annoying thread I've had the misfortune of participating in in quite a long time.

:fixed:

Have you figured out what made it pointless yet?

 

[Jayne]

I do not believe in god and I would put the life I have lived against any so called christian. The SUN is god and that's where it all came from. Religion is BS plain and simple. If there is a god then he/she/it is doing a piss poor job at things. Look at the problems of the world and then think of it's cause. You'll see clearly that it's god and religion causing thew most of them. I worship the sun for it gives me more that any religion ever could and it's doesn't extort 10% of my income from me. Many non-believers have more morals in their little finger than some christians have in their entire body. So that's it in a nut shell. Those who believe are being sold a false sense of ever lasting life. When you die it's the end of the story and there is nothing more. We are no different than any other living creature on the Earth. Am I afraid to die? No because we all must do that. Am I willing to make others rich believing in a reward for my good life? No. Fear of death is used to extort your hard earned money from you and it's nothing but a false promice.

 

[Marie]

We are no different than any other living creature on the Earth. .

Question How many ghost do you hear of that are cats or dogs?
I ask this to bring about a point. We are differnt, were animals have souls that give them their personality they have no spirit like a human that is body , soul and spirit.
There is no such thing as loved ones roaming around that just havent moved, on only deamons that take on there charteristics for an intended purpose. There definetly is a spirt world around us that are eyes have been vailed to for our own protection.

Context of (Revelation 12:7-9).
Now transformed by their rebellion into malicious demons, these spirits roam the earth, seeking to incite men and women to join them in their rebellion against God and their enmity against his people.

The point they would have very nothing to gain posing as a lower life form. Animals have body and souls. Humans have body soul and spirit. There is life after this as we were made in Gods image, and God is spirit!
<DIR>Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
</DIR>

 

[itsbob]

Without some "Moral" compass based on something bigger than self, the individual is subject only to which way the wind is blowing .....

Actually yes, we just don't believe we can go to church on Sunday and be forgiven and given a clean slate to go out and do it again.

If Christians were all that moral and better than the athiests why do the Catholics have or NEED confession!??

Most athiests know right from wrong without it being preached to them or reading it in a book.. they were taught morals, ethics, and right from wrong where it SHOULD be taught, from their parents.

 

[toppick08]

Actually yes, we just don't believe we can go to church on Sunday and be forgiven and given a clean slate to go out and do it again.

If Christians were all that moral and better than the athiests why do the Catholics have or NEED confession!??

Most athiests know right from wrong without it being preached to them or reading it in a book.. they were taught morals, ethics, and right from wrong where it SHOULD be taught, from their parents.

Bob, I'm not Catholic but I believe confession of sins is taken out of scriptures in the Bible. Catholics confess to their priest and us Methodists do it at the local watering hole....

 

[camily]

Actually yes, we just don't believe we can go to church on Sunday and be forgiven and given a clean slate to go out and do it again.

If Christians were all that moral and better than the athiests why do the Catholics have or NEED confession!??

Most athiests know right from wrong without it being preached to them or reading it in a book.. they were taught morals, ethics, and right from wrong where it SHOULD be taught, from their parents.

That's not what you are supposed to do. You ask for forgiveness and make a concious effort not to do it again. If you repent with the thought that you can just repeat the sin, you are completely wrong.

 

[itsbob]

That's not what you are supposed to do. You ask for forgiveness and make a concious effort not to do it again. If you repent with the thought that you can just repeat the sin, you are completely wrong.

Not supposed to.. yeah, and??

WHy should you need to do it in the first place? If you are contrite, won't God forgive you without the middle man?

 

[camily]

Not supposed to.. yeah, and??

WHy should you need to do it in the first place? If you are contrite, won't God forgive you without the middle man?

Yes. That's why I'm not Catholic. I don't agree with that either.

 

[This_person]

Actually yes, we just don't believe we can go to church on Sunday and be forgiven and given a clean slate to go out and do it again.

I think you're confusing a specific church's teachings from the overall concept of morals. You're mixing ideas where they don't belong mixed.

If Christians were all that moral and better than the athiests why do the Catholics have or NEED confession!??

Again, one specific sect of all Christians, and not pertinent to the conversation. You're asking why a specific group of people practice what they do per their church instead of talking about the concept of morals. Unless you're implying that all Christians are Catholic, all Christians are immoral, and all atheists are good. I don't think you're actually trying to say that, but that would be the only way this question would have any meaning in this conversation.

Most athiests know right from wrong without it being preached to them or reading it in a book.. they were taught morals, ethics, and right from wrong where it SHOULD be taught, from their parents.

The idea is here what standard was used to teach that. By the definition of morals, if that standard was the common practice, the community social standard - that's not morals. It may be very ethical, very "good", but it's not a moral. I don't think anyone is trying to imply that Christians are "better" people - just that there is a more significant foundation for morals than ethics. The end practice may be the same, but from a different source.

 

[Sorceress]

I believe that all humans have the inate ability to now right from wrong...most cultures if they believe in a god or not have a moral code..knowing that it's wrong to kill, it's wrong to steal, so on and so forth...so does one have to believe in god to understand what morality is? No I don't think so... it is in our DNA to know, but it's up to those who are more mature to help the little ones along. Most societies have some understanding of how to teach their young how to assimulate what they feel is right and wrong. But remember we might not understand what the cultural values are when looking from the outside in with our own cultural values that we were raised with.

 

[aps45819]

Can Godless Atheists Have Moral Values?

Is there another kind of atheist?

 

[Sorceress]

hey just wondering isn't the title of this thread redundant? Godless Athiest? Doesn't Athiest mean someone who does not believe in a god?

 

[backagain39]

I'm an agnostic, but I dare you to meet my moral and ethical values. And if it were ever proven to me that God did truly not exist, that wouldn't change who I am, I would still be the same ethical and moral person. Morals and ethics have nothing to do with believing or not believing in God. And I've met some "religious" people that had the values and morals of a snake.