The Simple Elegance of 'Heathen' Morality - Empathy

The most common concern put to me as an atheist (I use that term generically and not without hesitation) is that without a belief in a God, or more specifically a fear of his wrath, I have no reason to be moral and can therefore wreak havoc with indifference. This question does raise a concern. However my concern is about the person asking the question rather than about my own morality.

The simple fact is that despite my atheism, I have clearly defined and appropriate morals ("appropriate" being relative to location!) and have no desire to cause harm in any way, and all this without fear of being tortured. And I will go further to say that my morals transcend those of religious leanings. That is a bold statement, but I will give you my reasoning.

Firstly I will deal with religious morals. These are based, often too literally, on some variation of a 'word of god'. This is usually done without question as most believe their text to be infallible, allowing us to revert to an antiquated idea of morality based on the time in which the text is written. This often includes slavery, ethnic cleansing, arbitrary death penalties, sexism and human sacrifice to name a few. Obviously most of this is not practiced today but it should raise questions about the infallibility of the text.

Then there are the reasons for adhering to religious morals, and this is what concerns me most. If you take away the threat of God's wrath, then how will these religious folk react? By their original question they admit that they will have no control, for no fear of punishment is apparently the catalyst for immorality.

So where does our morality come from? In evolutionary principle we generally act in a way that is beneficial to our species. It would not be beneficial to us or to life on our planet if we caused chaos. Murder kills off the species and thievery results in social dysfunction, and so on. Naturally then, in order to survive as a species this must not happen, which brings me to the elegant evolutionary construct known as empathy. This simple product of evolution explains a lot.
-We love because we need love.
-We don't harm because we don't want to be harmed.
-We care because we need to be cared for.
And so it goes, to our own benefit and also to the benefit of humanity.

Our morality extends increasingly beyond our own species as we become more aware that our effect on the Earth can be detrimental to our own survival.

Viv

10 Atheist Recommendations

THE 10 ATHEIST RECOMMENDATIONS

1 – Do not have any God

2 – Do not worship a false idol

3 – Worship no God before knowledge of him

4 – Make no wrongful claim to mislead others

5 – Observe the 7^th day to recover from the 6^th night

6 – Honour your Father and Mother, unless they are neglectful or abusive, in which case you shall call Social Services.

7 – You shall not murder

8 – You shall not commit adultery – without adequate protection

9 – Don’t take shit

10 – Don’t hassle you neighbour. Unless he’s a dick.