(posted on 21-Mar-2000)
What compels atheists to be moral?
The problem is with the question. There is a subtle, insidious assumption by the Christians (or others) asking the initial question. The assumption being that God does in fact exist. Here's a hypothetical discussion between a Christian (substitute any other theist if you want) and an Atheist:
Christian: Hey you atheist, you say there is no God, but morals come from God so where do your morals come from if you even have any?
Atheist: Ok, first there is no God. So let me ask you, where did you get your morals from?
C: From God.
A: You didn't listen, we started with the statement that there is no God. So again, where then did you get your morals from?
C: Uh,...
A: Right, from an atheist's perspective we humans created God and morals. Which one came first is an interesting question, but irrelevant to this debate - humans created both morals and God.
Or to be more direct. There is no God, there are morals. We humans created the idea of God. We humans created morality (or more accurately morality evolved in some sort of social memetic/genetic manner). There really is no problem for the atheist here. Morals exist therefore we must have created them. How we filter them (through religion, laws, customs, whatever) is interesting but does not take away from the fact that we created them.
dave