militant atheist here, lmk

Like I said before, I want to get an idea of who atheists are NOT as much as who they are. I don't believe that all atheists are vile, disgusting, filthy, evil creatures that do the bidding of Satan - as most Christians seem to believe, for some screwed up reason. Atheists are as much human as the most radical religious nuts, and I want to show that side of them. I want to know about things like how someone establishes "right" and "wrong" without religion to guide them, for example, because I know that everybody has their own morals and ideals and someone who isn't religious doesn't inherently have completely opposite morals from someone who is devoutly religious.

seems you have your prejudices

perhaps some good reading for you: http://www.humanistni.org/dynamic_content.php?id=126

Well I'm an atheist and I'd say from society. For example most societies have found that incest, cannibalism, and kin-murder are damaging to society and have made this behaviour taboo. these taboos are taught to the young and are passed from generation to generation. However, there are no universal taboos (for every widespread taboo, there are societies that do not hold that behaviour to be taboo).

Well that's my point see... Atheists are just people who don't believe in a god. Nothing else unites them.

I'm not exactly an atheist, I don't believe in any religion but there are some particular aspects that I hope do exist. Otherwise, I'll share my thoughts.

I don't believe in any particular religion because I was brought up this way, my family didn't attend church or anything, we had many other things on our hands to do. Secondly, when you're in a time of trouble, I think thinking more rationally (ex. scientifically) rather than religiously would help you do something more normal. For example, if you really needed money you can get a job, instead of begging on the streets everyday praying someone will just give you a ton of money.

E: From your previous posts, I'd also like to mention that there are quite a few things that allows one to understand what's ethical. Culture and traditions, family, peers, and other things help a person decide what's right and wrong. Of course, the decision may not always be entirely correct, but it's like you said, it's sort of the same thing as a religious person. Now, I'm not going to get into an argument about what religion really is, but I'm thinking that all human beings are already born with the ability to decide what's right and wrong, some people just make the bad decisions. Having a religion though, will further increase your confidence and ideas about what's right and wrong because depending on the religion, there are important texts that also explains, I guess, what is right and wrong to do in life, and if someone is really religious, it would make them think that what they are doing is really the right thing to do.

This post was edited by Sefira on Feb 13 2014 06:07pm