Q. Do atheist have morals? Where do they come from if not from a holy book?

First of all, there’s no evidence that your holy book was written by anyone other than men from hundreds or thousands of years ago who didn’t know anything about how reality works at the atomic level.

Somehow we’re all supposed to accept that these ancient people knew the difference between right and wrong when they hadn’t even discovered the compass or circumnavigated the globe. I mean, the didn’t even know the earth was a sphere.

Dear flat earthers, based on obvious evidence, you’re wrong.

History tells us it’s kind of the opposite actually. I mean, no one runs into battle thinking god is on their enemy’s side.

sandwich belongs to someone else. Not because you need a bible vs about sandwiches but because, if it was your sandwich, you wouldn’t want someone to eat it on you like that. Or kill you and then eat.

It’s literally the golden rule. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Yet we still have all these holy books that seems to have a big list of what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”. These lists are a mix of useful ways to coexist, ridiculous arbitrary rules, and contradictory passages. But either way, you need to somehow navigate this tangled web or right and wrong or you’re going to hell.

It sound like they set you up to fail on that one.

But don’t worry. a big part of religion is going to a weekly meeting to have someone tell you a section of the moral web that they consider to be right and wrong. So you can find out your wrong and try to be right.

I have another question for you religious folk….

How do you know your book got it right? I mean if one religion says it’s not okay eat pork while another says it’s to not eat beef. How do you know who’s right? How do you know you’re not both wrong?

If you compare your holy book to all the other thousands of religions throughout time all their holy books, how do you know which book is right? If someone told you your book was right, why did you believe them? I mean, humans have been known to be pretty dang unreliable. And shady.

Would it be moral cut a baby? Or someone genitals? I mean, would you want someone to cut off or mutilate your genitals? That seem clearly, “wrong”

Yet there are religions out there that mutilate women’s genitals. Is that moral?

There are religions out there that mutilate newborn baby boy’s genitals. Is that moral?

So when you ask, do atheist have morals? I naturally want to ask, do religious people have morals?

And here’s the truth. The answer to both questions is, yeah, some of them do, but not all of them.

It doesn’t matter which holy book you say you worship; some people will be or try to be “moral” under that book’s rules and other won’t. Other people will literally question the “morals” in the book because their own internal moral compass is telling them some of the rules can’t be right. So the do that best they can and pick and choose the things that sound moral and skip the things that sound immoral.

If you’re atheist, some people will be or try to be “moral” based on things like the golden rule and others won’t.

I wish I could say we’re all trying our best to “do the right thing” but that’s just not true. There are many people out there who only want to do what’s best for themselves or their side of a historical feud or argument.

My personal answer for myself is that I try to live by the golden rule and it’s a hard thing to do but I get a little better every day.

I know I’m not the only atheist out there so you would be wise to assume that not all atheist follow the golden rule. But there are many athiests who do. And there are many atheist who are banding together under the name “Humanist” and advocate for values and equality and trying to embody the phrase “good without god”. I’ll leave you a link to humanism in the description.

But I guess that’s really what the question is really asking, right? Can Atheists be good without god?

To that, the answer is: yes, absolutely. Go check out the Golden Rule and Humanism.

What’s your moral code? Do you actually follow your holy book’s code or do you follow your own moral code? If so, what does it involve? Drop your answers in the comments below.