Doubting Thomas

I'm an atheist and I can say that you are wrong.

Morality is subjective, but anything that harms another person, like baby rape, is automatically bad and immoral. Why is it that Christians can't understand this, and why is it they always like to bring up things like baby rape?

And what's wrong with "As long as it harms none including yourself, do what ye will?"

1/2/2010 11:12:26 PM

Sister Immaculata

And let me guess--any atheist who affirms that he or she is against raping babies will simply be told by you that they are a bad atheist.

Go, bad atheists, go!

1/2/2010 11:16:41 PM

Sagan's Ghost

Fundies are in a difficult position. Without God, there can be no such thing as an absolute right or wrong. Laws then just become one person's subjective morality imposed on another person.

(That is why they have wet dreams about establishing a theocracy.)

An atheist who is consistant with atheism has to say that there is nothing inherently wrong with raping a baby. Viewing it as wrong would only be a subjective opinion.

(Baby rape?? What kind of monster are you?)

Given that that is the case an atheist can't say that anything anyone does is wrong.

(Unlike irrational, delusional religionists that have a direct line to an imaginary deity to advise them??)

1/3/2010 7:22:01 AM

Berny

There are some things that are always defined as bad: murder, rape (whether of a child or an adult), theft, physical assault. Virtually every civilized society has drafted laws against those and they are not based on religion.
Other things fall under the category of immoral from a religious perspective. Those would be homosexual activity, adultery, premarital sex, recreational drug use (I include alcohol in this), dancing, etc. Most civilized societies do not place restrictions on those although many religious people would frown on some or all of them.
The problem of morality for the religious is that it is very much subjective. While all faiths can agree that killing is wrong, some do not have a problem with killing someone who has left the faith. The same applies to rape. Most would agree rape is wrong but some faiths are OK with retaliatory rape in matters of honour.
This is why religion needs to be excluded in any matters of law and justice.

1/3/2010 2:45:40 PM

Baby rape, its Aww right. http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Baby_fuck

1/3/2010 10:21:48 PM

Sylvana

All morality is subjective. There is no absolute right and wrong. Further right and wrong even within society changes depending on the circumstances. Hence why people who kill in self defence dont go to prison.

Further eventhough empathy would prevent most people from finding baby raping acceptable, in the past, such events were reasionable common and acceptable as a means for one society to previal over another. However once again such actions carried no absolutes, killing someone from a rival society was acceptable, killing someone from your own society was not.

Hence, times change as does morality, along with the scenarios of that subjective morality in application.

1/4/2010 3:36:46 AM

Marc

As others have already pointed out, we don't need your god to tell us the difference between right and wrong. We are social animals, as such, we've evolved this thing called "empathy" and the ability to work together (working together increases our chances for survival). Things which impede our ability to work together, such as raping infants (where do you people come up with these examples?) are considered "wrong." Why? Because a person who rapes infants is a detriment to the clan/tribe/state.

Things which help our ability to work together (like giving food to the hungry-the hungry person is fed, and thus able to contribute to the group-again-increasing the group's chance for survival) are considered "good."

I wrote this post with all of ten seconds worth of consideration. It might not be the best written analysis of morality, but I think it serves as a good guideline. It's certainly kept me from raping infants for the last decade or so of being an atheist.

1/4/2010 7:42:49 AM

Pup

The baby would be hurt both physically and mentally and may even die, your peers would ostracise you and society would imprison you.

Surely that's reason enough to deter you from doing it? I mean, the fact that no sane person would want to do that, nor could do that to a baby in the first place, that's just atheistic nonsense, right? You only love babies cause God says so, right?

1/4/2010 9:35:13 AM

Godbuster

It's like they don't understand the function of morals, just insist on the implementation of their fascist rules.
The function of being moral is cooperation, now if I stab you in the face, I'll never get my burger and it doesn't take a god to tell me that's bad, because I AM HUNGRY!!!

1/4/2010 2:08:52 PM

Zeus Almighty

"An atheist who is consistant with atheism has to say that there is nothing inherently wrong with raping a baby. Viewing it as wrong would only be a subjective opinion."

You assholes are the ones who insist that our legal code is based on the 10 commandments (regardless of the fact that only two of the ten are actual, like, laws).
If I were the supreme invisible man in the sky, I would have included "Don't fuck kiddies" in the top one or two. Your god is so stupid he didn't even include it in his top-ten no-nos list.

1/4/2010 3:13:37 PM

Mageapprentice

The needle of your moral compass is missing- that's why you can't tell right from wrong.

1/5/2010 1:16:17 PM

DaaanceYouLoser

Actually, he's totally correct. Most of the responses here sound as ignorant and senseless as any religious fundamentalist rant. For example, doing something wrong is "automatically" wrong. Uh, automatically? What is the logic behind that? One hundred years ago the average atheist would say that homosexuality is "automatically" wrong, after all.

The man is right. Atheism in no way promotes an idea of concrete right and wrong. As an atheist, all one's choices should be based on rationalisation, isn't that correct? On logic, and fact, rather than belief? So then, by that rule, one can really ONLY choose what would please him personally the most. After all, there is absolutely no rational or logical reason to help someone, sacrifice something, or refrain from doing something, if it doesn't benefit you directly. Therefore, if you want to actually rape a baby, it would be irrational to the atheist NOT to do it, assuming you could get away with it. I see absolutely no sensible argument against this principle. Morality does not benefit everyone; if you want to murder someone, assuming you would not be punished for it, there is no rational reason you shouldn't, as an atheist. To refrain from actually doing it would be a moral decision, and morality can surely not be a factor in an atheist's decision; as they will say time and time again, "morality is subjective," "there are no black and white matters," et cetera. How, then, can the atheist possibly rationalise refraining from an act he wishes to commit, as long as it benefits him directly?

"If I were the supreme invisible man in the sky, I would have included "Don't fuck kiddies" in the top one or two. Your god is so stupid he didn't even include it in his top-ten no-nos list." ~Zeus Almighty

Um, why? You do realise that modern American society is one of the only societies in history that actually condemns sex under the age of 18, right? What you would consider "kiddies" would likely include about 90% of your ancestors when they married and gave birth. Even in old times of American civilisation, women married gave birth as young as thirteen. So why would the 10 Commandments include "don't fuck kiddies" when we're one of the only societies in history that doesn't?

1/5/2010 1:48:29 PM

Dr. Novakaine

There is no absolute morality. However, it is not up to individuals to decide what it moral - it is up to societies. They decide what is acceptable by what they collectively believe is right and wrong. You violate the norms of society, you face the consequences.

And no atheist thinks raping babies is okay. It doesn't have to be objective to be a universally-shared value.

1/5/2010 2:08:27 PM

Lady Gray

I really have no idea how often I've had to say this:

Morality does not come from religion. Religion incorporates morality and common human decency (sometimes) because it is basic. My personal philosophy is that you can do whatever you like UNLESS it infringes on other people's rights and freedoms. That pretty much covers everything. And I know plenty of atheists, all of whom regularly do community service and care about other people. I know a few Christians who do.

1/10/2010 9:01:31 PM

Saringuy

you see, not all people are sociopathic like you.

4/19/2012 11:39:45 AM