Atheism and Moral Values

[Undertoad]

But I don't think atheists have any good reason for being good.

But you think that because you've never had to spend time being one and developing your own moral code. You've been handed one. Those of us who have had to develop our own moral code, man we know where it comes from: we think about stuff. But mostly we get it from our culture, as PH put so beautifully. And so do all Christians. They don't get it from the bible, or they would be slaveowners, and protest the eating of shrimp, or at least act more according to the teachings of Christ.

Back to Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development:

Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
- 1. Obedience and punishment orientation (How can I avoid punishment?)
- 2. Self-interest orientation (What's in it for me?)

Level 2 (Conventional)
- 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity (Social norms)(The good boy/good girl attitude)
- 4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation (Law and order morality)

Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
- 5. Social contract orientation
- 6. Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience)

How does religion get to #5 and 6? Maybe it's because I never spent any time being a believer, but I can't see it. It sure fulfills 1 and 2 perfectly. Of course it has to because it had to address a simpler people, spread through a simpler culture, developed in a time when there was no printing press, no understanding of the physical laws of the world, barely any education, and the average person died at age 35 without any leisure time to spend considering morality and ethics.