Misconceptions and Silly Questions About Atheists #1.
I’ve had the opportunity to interact with a broad variety of people lately and suffice it to say they’ve been presenting a number of classic misconceptions about atheists. Repeatedly. I thought I’d share some here so my readers could see just how many silly (and downright outrageous) notions people have about atheists.
All morals come from God/the Bible so atheists cannot be moral.
Morals existed before the concept of gods were created, before the Abrahamic god was thought up, and before the Bible. They’re in every society on Earth, even those that don’t know about the Bible or Judaism/Christianity. So it’s obvious that morals don’t all come from God/the Bible, and that atheists can be (and usually are) moral.
Arthur C. Clarke, who died just this past March, once said: “The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion” . I couldn’t agree more, for not only does it imply that the non-religious are amoral, but it allows some of the most heinous acts to be carried out by the religious under the banner of morality.
The Ethic of Reciprocity is universal. It exists in practically every philosophy and religion known to humanity. It’s simple and if followed would go a long way to improving the world.
Of course The Ethic of Reciprocity is certainly not the only evidence of morality outside of the Bible or the Judeo-Christian God. But it is the main one I try to live by, and the one I offer whenever asked what I live by if not by the Bible.
