How can an atheist come up with the concept of equality among men with an atheistic mindset?
by Barb on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 | 21 Comments
with morality being subjective in an atheistic mindset…where does the idea of equality come from…what would constitute equality if moral views are subjective…what would equality be based on in a subjective moral view…wouldn’t equality need to be based on a moral constant…
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the bible explains it’s cool to have slaves and you come up with this b@ll@cks lol
by not giving special treatment to those who think they’re special for reading a book
atheists do not care about religion to the point of believing it, so they are not swayed by it in anyway
god is a trick of the mind this isn’t a put down to you it’s a liberation of mind for me
atheists are not brainwashed people who believe they are talking to a higher power are very much brainwashed
that is my rational
secular humanism
There is no basis for inequality.
Easily.
It’s usually the religious who claim that some people aren’t equal and don’t deserve equal rights.
Gay people, for instance.
Easily
What are you trying to say?
That your precious bible, filled with slave-ownership, sexism, and homophobia, preaches equality?
does your biblical god like equality?
2corinthians 6:14-17
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
Equality isn’t a moral question, its a social ideal.
Unlike religions like Christianity that state that a man can own another man or a woman should treat her husband like god, there is no need for this in modern life.
Um, because we’re all human, and no one is more or less important than another?
The problem I’m seeing with this is that you say Christians have objective morality. That is utter nonsense, considering how many people were ruthlessly murdered in the Bible. A double standard, perhaps?
We can logically value equality because everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. The weakness of one person may be the strength of another, and vise versa. Thus, cooperation makes it so that both weaknesses are covered.
It can be done.
Eg the French Liberté, égalité, fraternité
More of your usual nonsense.
lack of a belief in God allows them to have belief in people, family, truth, beauty, friends, kindness, jell-o and all the other amazing things in the world…and you can be moral without believing in God. I am an atheist, and in my mind there are no Gods to stop me doing bad things, but that doesnt mean i do bad things, I dont walk around and kill everyone i see.
Morality is completely outside of religion.
1.) There is no "atheist mindset"… atheists are just people who don’t profess a belief in a supernatural being, and they are come in all shapes, sizes, and mindsets.
2.) Morality is not "subjective" to an atheist by default, and I daresay many do not adhere to the idea of moral relativism.
3.) Ethics are derived from biology and culture combined. Biological imperatives… live, reproduce, and protect our friends and families so they can live and reproduce… those give a sound, non-relative basis for a code of decent human ethics. Cultures will have the relative parts, such as whether or not a cow is sacred, for instance… but that will not affect basic ethics relative to one’s right to life, or to be treated equally among peers.
4.) The moral constant is the biological drive to live, and it behooves us to grant others the rights we would like to have in return. We have also, over many generations, come to realize the benefits of altruism, and so we extend the biological "family" circle out to encompass all humanity.
5.) Atheism has no ideology, and I present this only as my own perspective. As it happens, I am an atheist. Secular Humanism, the Brights, the Church of Reality, and more are organizations that offer ideologies for non-theists. There are also older, non-theistic religions, such as Zen Buddhism.
Peer Pressure. With no supreme being to belive in, an honest evaluation of self reveals that no one is better than another; only circumstances make a difference.
honesty with self can work to bring one to equality among others.
But don’t lose sight of the fact that morality at its base, is simply the knowledge of good and evil. And THAT is something bestowed upon all mankind since sin entered the world.
Atheists are moral because they are human beings. God has not said that only Believers get the knowledge of good and evil.
Yep I’m atheist and I LOVE abortions! You are so right! I get em all the time. You know us atheists! Ok seriously, that was the most immature comment I’ve seen. You know how many Christians I know that have gotten abortions? And none of my atheist friends have gotten one. Explain that! Grow up!
Say what? Its the christians that are setting up the differences and saying certain groups aren’t equal – including other christians.
Typical christian thinking:
I’m a (fill in the blank) christian. I am going to heaven.
You are an atheist/buddhist/etc so you are not equal to me and will go to hell.
You are a christian but not the right kind (my kind) of christian so you will go to hell.
Atheists are moral because we know the difference between right and wrong and keep to our standards because its the right thing to do.
Christians only do the right thing because they either expect a reward or fear punishment.
morals are based on societal standards, not religious doctrine.
It would seem that you are making assumptions without actually bothering to read anything on the subject by actual atheists…?
You cannot be taken seriously when you say things like "morality being subjective in an atheistic mindset" when what you actually mean to say is "I think morality is subjective for atheists." Atheists do not say that moral views are subjective — that is existential nihilism or, specifically, moral nihilism which is almost universally rejected by thinking people, including atheists, as not a sensible option.
Try reading:
Atheism Explained by David Ramsay Steele
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction by Julian Baggini
I would argue that an atheist who philosophizes about the differences between religious ethics and atheistic ethics would say that atheists are forced to be ethical or not unlike believers who have the additional opinion of just knowing that he ought to look ethical.
Specifically with regard to equality an atheist is left with no other opinion: all human beings are equal or he is a hypocrite. The believer has the option of looking to "holy" texts and tradition to argue that God’s order has another way of looking at things that is "higher" or "better" than equality.
For example:
"Slaves obey your earthly masters in everything;…It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Colossians 3:22-24
"He that gathered much did not have too much, and he that gathered little did not have too little." 2 Corinthians 8:15 (quoting Exodus 16:18). Everything that you have is as God wishes it to be.
To argue that higher modern ideals like equality and justice come from a theistic tradition that isn’t compatible with atheism is to miss, entirely, that those modern ideals became fixed into modern religious tradition by rebellion — rebellion that was by and large denounced at the time by religious leaders as…atheistic (placing man’s law above God’s law and the tradition of the church).
Missing the vile contempt of the religious establishment for such critical thinkers as Thomas Hobbes, Benedict Spinoza, David Hume, Thomas Paine, and John Stuart Mill also means missing that the central pillar of The Enlightenment — reason is the primary source and legitimacy for authority — is a direct and open challenge to the moral authority of religion
.
Your question is flawed:
‘an atheistic mindset’ is a meaningless phrase in this context, since by necessity the only common feature all atheists share is a lack of belief in gods.
‘How can an atheist come up with the concept of equality among men’ is also a flawed assumption. You might as well ask ‘How can non-French speakers like ice-cream?’
You are making sweeping, bigoted generalizations (which ironically is demonstrating your own practice of inequality) apparently in a thinly veiled attempt to criticize, & doing so using the deliberate deceit of pretending to present it as a question.
It’s worth pointing out that Warren Buffet & Bill gates, the two individuals to have donated the most to charity, have pledged approximately £35 billion – they are both non-religious & yet are willing to contribute more than any single religious organization (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5115920.stm). Numerous charities are specifically or incidentally non-religious e.g. Amnesty International, Red Cross, Gates Foundation, Oxfam, UNICEF, World Health Organization.