Reply To: Burn Baby Burn
I might be able to summarise what is generally (although not completely) agreed:
– there are many different moralities and it may be difficult (if not impossible) to define an atheist morality;
– theists do not have a monopoly on morals; indeed by many of their own moral metrics, atheists are categorically at least as moral if not more lawful and less abberrant;
– just as various religious texts represent snapshots of the knowledge of man at different stages of our development; they also represent a snapshot of moralities at different points in time and in different cultures;
– most morals are subjective in nature;
– morals almost certainly have an evolutionary function and as a result are contextual depending on the environment.
No-one has suggested that atheists dont have morals. The issue is simply definitional.
So the starting point for any response to the question theists often pose being ‘What is stopping atheists (burning babies, murdering, stealing etc?)’ should always be Atheists have morals and a belief in an ideology is not a requirement for lawful or ethical behavior.
