I disagree.

They have done numerous studies where they find that charitable people and people who do "good" tend to be happier people.

While lack of god might = kill all the jews to you.
To me, I would derive no satisfaction at all from killing another human being.

Both of us would probably be much happier spreading joy, good will, and hope than we ever would murdering people or raping people.

So I guess my answer, is Endorphins, or sense of worth, or praise, or respect, or admiration, or positive chemical brain reactions, or any other number of selfish reasons to be kind and moral would ALL be reasons to be moral in the absence of god.

I don't believe in any god. I am a very moral person. I would never harm another human being. (Unless you consider questioning their beliefs, harmful)

Ixtellor

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George W. Bush "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building"

Blasphemy is a victimless crime.

I know. I'm moral just like you. I never harmed anyone. all I say is, without the God, there's no difference. of course we all have a sense of moral inside us. I say, God is why you're moral, even if you believe there's no God.

if there's no god, genocide is justified, because the victims won't remember being victims, they are no more, so what's the difference, if they're nothing after while?

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I crave therefore I am and that is all I ever feel
I hoped you'd understand, One love, One pain, One enemy
I toast to misery, as I dig into the devil's bone
And for eternity the pain became me
Unholy me alone...

Its true. I'm an atheist and I've already killed 3 people and raped 2 women. (*)(*)(*)(*), and it's not even lunch yet.

If the only thing holding you back from going on a murdering rampage is faith, you just might be insane.

Not to mention the fact that a great many believers are immoral. So God isn't helping there.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

and why is it? we all die, we all will be nothing after all. then nothing is insane. how do you define sanity? being like other people? well, 5 billion people at least believe in one faith. so is atheism sanity then?

__________________
I crave therefore I am and that is all I ever feel
I hoped you'd understand, One love, One pain, One enemy
I toast to misery, as I dig into the devil's bone
And for eternity the pain became me
Unholy me alone...

Morality is often distinguished from ethics and humaneness. Morality is the concern for abiding by a code of conduct defining "right" and "wrong". Ethics is the philosophical inspection of morality. And humaneness is the desire to do good, not from fear of punishment, but because one would not be able to live with oneself otherwise.

Morality is an external attempt to control people, by convincing them through some means to obey these rules, and thus requires some means of enforcement (such as fear of God). Humaneness comes from within, requires no rules, and cannot be enforced. Some people are simply inhumane. They're called sociopaths. Not everyone is a sociopath. If you feel that you might go on a killing rampage just because the enforcer of your moral code disappears, you might just be a sociopath.

In any case, without God, there's another code of conduct that can somewhat control sociopaths: the law. Also, even if God does exist, he's making no attempt to control people, so when it comes to morality through God, what's important is the belief (and fear) in God. Not his actual existence. This isn't motivation for me to believe in God. This is however a reason for me to hope that all sociopaths do.

It's called Consequences.

Breaking human law has consequences.

With no fear of retribution after Death, the only way to control behavior is by creating
consequences in Life.

That misses the point entirely because you are claiming as though "God" was made up to control behavior. "Better eat your vegetables or Jesus won't be happy" sort of thing.

We have a vast, and extremely complex Universe, we have a vast and complex variety of carbon based life here on Earth.

The atheist thinks it all just randomly appeared out of the empty vacuum of space and the mathematical constants and precision of the Universe just randomly "showed up" along with it, and the miracle of life just "randomly" developed in a small sliver of infinite space...and human intelligence just "randomly" evolved out of a few deep water vents on the oceans' floor.

I don't know about you, but I'll take the "fairy tale" of a Creator God, over

"Stuff happens" dismissal of the atheist.


Respectfully.

(if it's so easy, make your own Universe)

Actually, atheists and agnostics are not of one mind on such matters.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

Well then perhaps the Atheist should better define their philosophy.

I interpret the term to mean a Non-belief system outside of the constructs of Human existence.

No divinity, no intelligence, no God....

The Universe to them has no meaning and no purpose, only human rational thought has meaning and purpose.

It is quite an arrogant point of view actually.

It dismisses so much of what is not known.

Faith is humility.

Jew/Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/Hindu/Shinto

all incorporate humility into the tenents of their resepective beliefs.

sanity is basically the ability to have good judgment. If I kill someone, my life will be short lived due to punishment. As far as I know, this will be my only life, so I cherish my life. I also cherish the life of others because I wouldn't want to take away what might be that one only shot they have at experiencing this world.

If you follow a religion and don't want to kill people, you're sane. If you don't follow a religion and don't want to kill people, you're sane. If you want to kill people, regardless of faith, you are nucking futs.