I know this could come across as goady, but I don't mean it that way, it's a genuine question meant respectfully, and I'm sure there are people out there who have thought about this already who can help my random ponderings.
It vaguely occurred to me the other day with the faith schools threads, and again more recently from a book I've been reading. Obviously atheists do have morals, (which is what several posters were at pains to point out on the threads), but my question is why? Where do they come from?
What I mean is, if there's actually a being who created humans and who said, for example, 'you should treat other people as you'd like to be treated' that is then a good reason for people to do so and to believe that everyone should. But if there is no such being, how can one human being claim that another should behave a certain way? Surely it's just a matter of opinion, and one person's opinion is as valid as another's?
Another example, I'm fairly sure most people on here would agree that women should be treated equally to men and that it's wrong to pay women less for the same job, or to not bother educating them as they'll just have babies etc. But lots of people historically and throughout the world wouldn't agree with that view, and what makes one view more correct than the other if there's no absolute?
I've just deleted the rest of what I was going to post as I was waffling on - but it was along the lines of how can we say that there are such things as human rights, why should everyone agree on them?
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Why do atheists have morals?
75 replies
anotherviper · 04/04/2014 20:13
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