Can Atheists be Moral?

[ding]

Many theists believe it is clear-cut. Humans can only have opinions about morality, and no one’s opinion is any more valid than anyone else’s. This leads them to the conclusion that an objective source of morality must stand apart from, and above, humans. That source, they say, is God. Since atheists, reject God, atheists can have no basis for morality.

This is really two separate arguments: (1) that God is the source of objective morality and humans can learn morality from God and (2) that humans on their own have no way to know what is moral and what is not.

Can atheists be moral? - Atheist Alliance International

The only truly moral people are Agnostics.

A true moralist does what the Creator would have that one do and not what the individual believes is the correct course of action... Morality hinges on eternal truth.

You mean the creator as written in man made scripture? I can think of $1.2T reasons why religious provocateurs would want you to believe that.

Karl Marx said essentially the same thing.

Please post the quote.

...in order to charm the golden birds, out of the pockets of his dearly beloved neighbours in Christ. He puts himself at the service of the other’s most depraved fancies, plays the pimp between him and his need, excites in him morbid appetites, lies in wait for each of his weaknesses – all so that he can then demand the cash for this service of love. (Every product is a bait with which to seduce away the other’s very being, his money; every real and possible need is a weakness which will lead the fly to the glue-pot. General exploitation of communal human nature, just as every imperfection in man, is a bond with heaven – an avenue giving the priest access to his heart; every need is an opportunity to approach one’s neighbour under the guise of the utmost amiability and to say to him: Dear friend, I give you what you need, but you know the conditio sine qua non; you know the ink in which you have to sign yourself over to me; in providing for your pleasure, I fleece you.)
Karl Marx
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
3rd paragraph
Human Requirements and Division of Labour, Marx, 1844

 

[ding]

Good thing you aren’t being morally indignant.

Yet again proving God does exist.

Yet again, no self-reflection. I know what I am...

I live for self reflection.

But the fact that everyone wants to be considered moral even though they don’t agree on what’s moral is the proof you have been searching for.

Self-reflection is nothing more than feeling sorry for ones self. If you want to make something of your life, then stop reflecting and do something.

No. That's almost as foolish as when you asked me to provide Karl Marx's quote.

 

[Grumblenuts]

Self-reflection is nothing more than feeling sorry for ones self.

Perhaps in the dingbat's case, but no, you're barking nonsense. Promoting the opposite - Look at me, I'm the epitome of success {because I say so}. And I did it all on my own. You just need an attitude adjustment, son. Got to dig deep and pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Like I did! - Yeah right, Donald. As if this MB and country needed even more of that shit right now. Btw, pain in the ass to remember I know, but it's "one's self" or "oneself" not "ones self." Ones and twos are plural not possessive.

Ironically, it is the "Onepercenters" and up who suffer most from such obliviousness and delusions of grandeur. You have to get to the one percent of the one percent to be in the big leagues. To really be "in the club" - of megalomaniacal basket cases, with some rule proving exceptions of course, but I digress. No one sane escapes self-reflection. We've evolved into social animals, like it or not. No one self reflects in this sense to an unhealthy degree like the the rich.

This instinct to measure and compare doesn’t disappear once people have an obscene amount of money. “The problem is, Am I doing better than I was? is only [moving people in] one direction, which is up,” Norton says. And if a family amasses, say, $50 million but upgrades to a neighborhood where everyone has that much money (or more), they feel a lot less rich than if they had stuck to the peer comparisons they were making tens of millions of dollars ago. Hence the ever-shifting goalposts of wealth and satisfaction.

The research Norton has conducted illustrating this phenomenon is dispiriting. In a paper published earlier this year, he and his collaborators asked more than 2,000 people who have a net worth of at least $1 million (including many whose wealth far exceeded that threshold) how happy they were on a scale of one to 10, and then how much more money they would need to get to 10. “All the way up the income-wealth spectrum,” Norton told me, “basically everyone says [they’d need] two or three times as much” to be perfectly happy.

Notice how we never stop comparing ourselves to others in terms of happiness or success. That's a form of self-reflection that's inherited. We have no choice. Just part of our human condition. No, the kind of self-reflection one needs to worry about has to to do with regularly applying "the Golden Rule" to check oneself, not to feel sorry for themself. To the contrary, when one preaches their gospel, as I'm fully aware of doing here, and regularly fails to credit others with possibly having a better, more informed and nuanced, "considerate" perspective on the matter than themself - that's lacking self-reflection. Repeatedly barking crap while making plain that you'll never really listen to or seriously consider alternate perspectives.

I estimate at least 50% of USMB members fit that mold. A far, far higher percentage than the public at large. Politics draws a lot of real assholes, misfits, the mentally ill. Also some of the most brilliant and compassionate. That's life in the big city.

 

[ding]

At any point in our lives we are the sum of our choices. Choose wisely.

 

[Grumblenuts]

..after going for a long walk on a short pier.. he oozed sapiently..

 

[ding]

Not all behaviors lead to equal outcomes. Some behaviors lead to worse outcomes and some behaviors lead to better outcomes.

 

[Grumblenuts]

I had a dog once. It died.

 

[ding]

Successful behaviors naturally lead to success.

 

[ding]

Self-reflection is nothing more than feeling sorry for ones self.

Perhaps in the dingbat's case, but no, you're barking nonsense. Promoting the opposite - Look at me, I'm the epitome of success {because I say so}. And I did it all on my own. You just need an attitude adjustment, son. Got to dig deep and pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Like I did! - Yeah right, Donald. As if this MB and country needed even more of that shit right now. Btw, pain in the ass to remember I know, but it's "one's self" or "oneself" not "ones self." Ones and twos are plural not possessive.

Ironically, it is the "Onepercenters" and up who suffer most from such obliviousness and delusions of grandeur. You have to get to the one percent of the one percent to be in the big leagues. To really be "in the club" - of megalomaniacal basket cases, with some rule proving exceptions of course, but I digress. No one sane escapes self-reflection. We've evolved into social animals, like it or not. No one self reflects in this sense to an unhealthy degree like the the rich.

This instinct to measure and compare doesn’t disappear once people have an obscene amount of money. “The problem is, Am I doing better than I was? is only [moving people in] one direction, which is up,” Norton says. And if a family amasses, say, $50 million but upgrades to a neighborhood where everyone has that much money (or more), they feel a lot less rich than if they had stuck to the peer comparisons they were making tens of millions of dollars ago. Hence the ever-shifting goalposts of wealth and satisfaction.

The research Norton has conducted illustrating this phenomenon is dispiriting. In a paper published earlier this year, he and his collaborators asked more than 2,000 people who have a net worth of at least $1 million (including many whose wealth far exceeded that threshold) how happy they were on a scale of one to 10, and then how much more money they would need to get to 10. “All the way up the income-wealth spectrum,” Norton told me, “basically everyone says [they’d need] two or three times as much” to be perfectly happy.

Notice how we never stop comparing ourselves to others in terms of happiness or success. That's a form of self-reflection that's inherited. We have no choice. Just part of our human condition. No, the kind of self-reflection one needs to worry about has to to do with regularly applying "the Golden Rule" to check oneself, not to feel sorry for themself. To the contrary, when one preaches their gospel, as I'm fully aware of doing here, and regularly fails to credit others with possibly having a better, more informed and nuanced, "considerate" perspective on the matter than themself - that's lacking self-reflection. Repeatedly barking crap while making plain that you'll never really listen to or seriously consider alternate perspectives.

I estimate at least 50% of USMB members fit that mold. A far, far higher percentage than the public at large. Politics draws a lot of real assholes, misfits, the mentally ill. Also some of the most brilliant and compassionate. That's life in the big city.

^ dunning effect

 

[Grumblenuts]

I had a dog once. It died.

 

[ding]

Failed behaviors naturally lead to failure.

 

[Grumblenuts]

In the HBO Chernobyl series, which is highly documentary, a pregnant woman keeps visiting her heavily radiated husband in the hospital as he deteriorates to mush, ignoring everyone yelling at her to stay away and not to touch him. So when the baby arrives it lives for only four hours. After testing the woman seems fine. The fetus had apparently absorbed all the radioactive tissue.

Interesting how the mother was "naturally" spared and the fetus "naturally" sacrificed in bible thumping terms. Apparently the gods, given a choice, naturally select viable, full grown women over fetuses while the "Failed behaviors" of anti-choicers only lead to Hell.

 

[james bond]

In the HBO Chernobyl series, which is highly documentary, a pregnant woman keeps visiting her heavily radiated husband in the hospital as he deteriorates to mush, ignoring everyone yelling at her to stay away and not to touch him. So when the baby arrives it lives for only four hours. After testing the woman seems fine. The fetus had apparently absorbed all the radioactive tissue.

Interesting how the mother was "naturally" spared and the fetus "naturally" sacrificed in bible thumping terms. Apparently the gods, given a choice, naturally select viable, full grown women over fetuses while the "Failed behaviors" of anti-choicers only lead to Hell.

Jeez, Grumblenuts, the woman lost her husband and baby as they turned to mush. It's like you losing your penis that way. Did she end up killing herself?

 

[ding]

In the HBO Chernobyl series, which is highly documentary, a pregnant woman keeps visiting her heavily radiated husband in the hospital as he deteriorates to mush, ignoring everyone yelling at her to stay away and not to touch him. So when the baby arrives it lives for only four hours. After testing the woman seems fine. The fetus had apparently absorbed all the radioactive tissue.

Interesting how the mother was "naturally" spared and the fetus "naturally" sacrificed in bible thumping terms. Apparently the gods, given a choice, naturally select viable, full grown women over fetuses while the "Failed behaviors" of anti-choicers only lead to Hell.

Now, now, now, if you want to use a tv show to ignore the reality that behaviors have consequences, then please be my guest. What could possibly go wrong with divorcing yourself from reality?

I have a sneaking suspicion that you are one of those people who when things go well it’s all you and when things go poorly it’s always someone else’s fault.

 

[Grumblenuts]

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that you have both been living in la-la land, deliberately, and for a long, long time. Now pipe down. I'm interested in hearing from the interesting people.

 

[ding]

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that you have both been living in la-la land, deliberately, and for a long, long time. Now pipe down. I'm interested in hearing from the interesting people.

Usually it’s the people who don’t see themselves as successful who take issue with failed behaviors naturally leading to failure.

 

[ding]

It’s funny how some people believe life isn’t fair.

 

[BreezeWood]

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that you have both been living in la-la land, deliberately, and for a long, long time. Now pipe down. I'm interested in hearing from the interesting people.

.

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that you have both been living in la-la land ...

the dark side do not want to know the truth ...

 

[james bond]

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that you have both been living in la-la land, deliberately, and for a long, long time. Now pipe down. I'm interested in hearing from the interesting people.

Next, you'lll be telling us she's Catholic and had two very, very, very large life insurance policies to cover such occurrence. What happened to her?

 

[Grumblenuts]

Next, you'lll be telling us she's Catholic and had two very, very, very large life insurance policies to cover such occurrence. What happened to her?

Great job being an insensitive asshole and go fuck yourself.

The harrowing true story of Chernobyl's Vasily Ignatenko and his pregnant wife Lyudmilla.