Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheists Aren't Avoiding Religious Morality

Today's Atheist Meme of the Day, from my Facebook page. Pass this on; or don't; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!

Atheists are not atheists because we want to be free of the restrictions of religion. We are just as moral as religious believers, and our codes of ethics are just as serious. And in any case, religion clearly doesn't make a reliable foundation for restricting unethical behavior. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Comments

[Timothy (TRiG)]

In my case, the opposite is true. To quote something I wrote on Daylight Atheism:

I actually suspect I would have left the Witnesses earlier if I wasn't gay. If you leave a religion merely because it doesn't suit you, you're never going to be happy. You'll have gnawing doubts in the back of your mind for the rest of your life: little whispers running around your head telling you you're doing the wrong thing. At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it would work for me. I left my religion because I didn't think it was true. This was, I thought at the time, the only good reason to leave any religion. (I've since revised that opinion. It's also good to leave a religion if you think God is an immoral monster. If I truly believed in the Calvinist deity I hope I would have the courage and moral fortitude to spit in his face.) And, because I was gay, the religion didn't suit me. And I wanted to be absolutely certain, before I walked away, that I was doing it for the right reasons. So I stayed. I stayed for quite a while, wrestling with myself, until I was certain my disbelief was honest, and not merely doubts made up to suit myself. As I said, if I wasn't gay, I would probably have left earlier.

TRiG.