Atheism and Moral Values

[Flint]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

It doesn't take very many people "not trying" to totally fuck up the domestic peace and tranquility. Anything that helps change the behavior of that minority is good.

Agreed. Of course, you've also got Jews and Muslims blowing each other up, in the news every day. How could they be so horribly misunderstanding the "good" message of religion? Why isn't religion helping to change their behavior for the better?

I have a theory. When a moral code is presented as an absolute, without the requisite logical arguments, people aren't given the opportunity to understand why they are being asked to behave a certain way. When an inflexible "source" of all knowledge is cited, people do not have to look within themselves and take a personal stake in their own behavior.

I accept that there are certain people, so messed up, that they can't hold it together without being coerced into a strict code of behavior; however, if they don't understand the reasoning behind that code, then how reliable is it? When presented with a situation for which there isn't a hard rule, they defualt to...what? Someone who has never put one second of thought into having personal reasons for "good" behavior is almost guaranteed to go apeshit sooner or later.