The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132816   Message #3007253
Posted By: Steve Shaw
14-Oct-10 - 07:44 PM
Thread Name: BS: The 'moral' Atheist?
Subject: RE: BS: The 'moral' Atheist?
"Even more interesting, can an Atheist have a concept of good and evil?"

You don't annoy me, Jack, and I'm sure you mean to be no more thsn provocative, but this question (were I to be neurotic) seems to imply that non-atheism, which really means God-believerism I suppose, has some kind of default grasp of good and evil. The pat riposte to this, of course, is that goodness, however you define it, does not necessarily emanate from religion. I'd go further and claim that goodness has nothing at all to do with religion. Just like Christmas, goodness has been usurped by religion and claimed as its own. Recently, I attended a funeral at which the vicar pronounced that the deceased had acquired his goodness from his religious upbringing. As it happens, I'd known the deceased person very well and I know that his goodness had derived from no such thing. It was very annoying, but what can you do at funerals! To be slightly more combative (why not... ;-) ), I'd contest that anyone who claims that their "goodness," or "moral code," derives from their religion is actually admitting to a miserable lack of spine (I'd suggest that they kicked away their crutches), and I'd point to myriad atheists who are profoundly steeped in goodness, as much as any Christian/whatever has ever been. We atheists could try harder I suppose, but we are cheerfully disorganised, and long may that be so...