'Atheists have no morals.' - Comments

I think having morals depends on who you ARE not what you believe or don't believe in:/

Also, just like to add... Atheist, Christian, Scientologist, other or none of the above - everybody 'sins'.

Good article. High five!

im an atheist and im practically shunned at my school because its full of mormons. If people saw me for what I am, a hard working individual with goals in life, then maybe they would understand my chocice as well. this isnt a joke and and for anyone that believes the author of this article insulted christians i have to say that why is it fair for u to insult us but not fair for us to insult u? What religious people, and not all are this way it just seems like most, dont understand is that its a CHOICE and not a list of values that decides what u follow.

The way you wrote this article made it seem like if you're not a Christian, you're a atheist. You left out the other religons, and you kinda bashed Christians.

I totally get what you're saying, but you stared to sway off topic of Atheist morals later.

While I agree with the beginning of the article, as you went on you started attacking Christians. Like most religions and groups with the same beliefs (even atheists), there are radicals. You felt offending by the guy on the Tyra Banks show, but I felt offended by your view on my religion. The bible isn't taken completely literally and it wasn't written by God himself. With that said, some of the people that wrote it might have let their own opinions getting in the way of what they wrote down instead of God's Word. Also, like Kurtni Von Teese said, it doesn't say to punish people for the sins they have committed, it says to not judge them and to recognize that we are all sinners and we are all equal. I agree with you that some Christians and other religious people can be very offensive, but saying they are all the same way is generalizing. I'm sorry, but I felt you were very hypocritical in this article. Next time, maybe you shouldn't be so biased.

I agree with carcinogenic. and Kurtni Von Teese. While I am agnostic (and I believe that morals are creations of the human mind, in the end; they don't exist outside our heads), this article seemed completely biased towards hating Christians in particular. There are so many religions out there, so many possible ways to argue it, and instead of offering a reasonable debate, it just sort of turns into a Christian bashing session.

I disagree that it is necessarily in everyone's instincts not to kill. Take some famous psychopathic serial killers. Clearly, it's not in their instincts. They might kill because they like the control, and they might kill because they're bored. Or they might kill because they feel an inexplicable urge to. What is it then? Honestly, I think it's just a learned behavior. I think it depends on personality, and environment, how one grew up. It's in the mind, the brain. I remember there was this one case, of this kid who had the job of breaking baby chicks necks in a chicken factory. And he just killed and killed and killed thousands of them as he was growing up. He had an abusive mother too, I believe. That trauma led him to have complete emotional detachment when he moved on to killing other things.

If behavior is learned then, one must have been taught by their parents. But who taught their parents that stealing was bad? Their parent's parents. And their parent's parent's parents before them. It's an endless cycle; how are we to determine where it began, Christian or Athiest?

People are people. There are good Christians, there are good Muslims, there are good Buddhists, and there are good Atheists. Then there are bad Atheists, bad Buddhists, bad Muslims, and bad Christians. Everyone is going to be hypocritical in some way, at some point in their lives. As someone said before, this article generalizes while saying generalizing is bad. I feel you kind of lost your point (and some of the moral high ground, as it were) by slinging mud at the other side. Otherwise, it would have been a good article.

Also, I was vaguely amused to find one of your sources being Yahoo Answers. xD

This is rather offensive.

I'm disturbed by the fact that you've written such a one-sided article under the guise of stimulating debate. I agree completely with your premise that a certain atheist can have perfectly sound morals, maybe moreso than a certain Christian, or so-called Christian. That's an incredibly important point to raise, leading to a really important discussion that should be happening all over the world right now, increasing tolerance. What saddens me is that you turn the article into an attack on Christians (tinged with personal rancour) which begins to generalize in a way eeerily similar to the original article you're rebuking. Stating that you understand generalizing is wrong is not an excuse to subsequently generalize as if we'll all understand that you're trying to make a point. All you've done is diluted your original message and made it seem impossible for two groups with different beliefs to respect each other and live and let live, so to speak, without demonizing each other. I want to believe that is possible, and I'm disappointed that this article doesn't further the cause.

Good article. I personally think the answer is neither. Morals don't come down to religion, but the person. Which I think, is more of the Atheist point of view, to accept that morals don't come from religion. I'm a Christian, btw, but I completely agreed with all your points.

This was an awesome article. :)

I want to point out that you only told the atheist side of the story. Have you ever actually read the bible? It never says to hurt or kill someone because they don't follow God's rules. Actually it says to forgive them and to not judge. It tells them to let God do his job, they have no place condemning some one.

On the other hand, though, I wouldn't say Atheists have no morals. To me a moral in something you would never do no matter the circumstance because you think it's wrong. Not because someone else thinks it's wrong. Some don't do bad things because they are afraid of what their God will do to them. Atheists don't do bad things because they know they are wrong. They don't behave because they're afraid of things their God will do.

Some of these are generalizations, and I realize you can't stereotype a group. All groups have their good people and their not so good people. That's just my view on it though.

It was a brilliantly laid out article, but my advice is before you decide your opinion on things like 'who has more morals' look at it through the others persons eyes. There might be something you didn't know beforehand and you, having already wrote and posted it, might look like an idiot who decided to stereotype people. I wasn't trying to be mean when I did this, I was trying to help, so, I hope you don't take it the wrong way, and test my advice next time.

This was a very good article.

For me the only problem is that you kind of started to attack Christianity.
Also along with attacking Christianity you kind of ignore other religion.

While I agree with the general idea of this article, I believe there are a few flaws that inevitably contradict what you attempted to do.

First, you claim that morals are both instinctual and taught- two very different schools of thought. I personally believe there is more valid evidence that supports the nurture of morals rather than the nature, however with proper sources you could have went either way.

Secondly, you make this article an attack on Christians rather than a method to find common ground. We don't need more conflict between to opposing belief systems, but rather a way to come together.As I'm sure you know, very few denominations of Christianity interpret the bible literally, and I believe acting as though Christians believe they truly should kill those who oppose their believes is inaccurate, and a cheap shot. The conclusion of your article to me is just arbitrary rhetoric for who gets the moral high ground. One group is not more moral than the other- what I believe you set out to prove, so why tear Christianity down and put atheists up higher?
"are Atheists really the heathens with no sense of morality, or are the Christians?"
I just think that's completely unfair- it isn't an either-or situation.

I'm sorry this comment sounded so critical, because I really do agree with you for the most part and you wrote this article very well. Great diction and organization.