Atheism IS Immoral

Let me begin this post by defining two keywords to be focused on: moral and immoral. These words constitute the grounds on which we can determine whether or not any given belief, or lack of a belief, is "moral."

Moral:

Of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.

Immoral:

Violating moral principles; not conforming to the patterns of conduct usually accepted or established as consistent with principles of personal and social ethics.

While there are many accepted definitions of these words, I found these definitions to most concisely and accurately display the sentiments found within each of the individual definitions. These were taken right from the dictionary, and if you have a problem with these definitions in my analysis; feel free to say so in a comment! As such, I will be moving forward with these definitions of "morality" and "immorality" in mind.

As is evident, I have titled my blog post "Atheism is immoral." But why would an atheist believe in something like this? Why would anyone want to be immoral? These are valid questions for sure.

My simple response to this notion that atheism is immoral is a result from understanding the definitions of these words, and the larger awareness at the existence of many different moral theories. Atheists are often called "immoral" by individuals who are either theists or just stringent fundamentalists and traditionalists. In many respects, these claims are unfounded. They have no formal justification. With that said, let us take these claims a priori ("at face value") and assume they are correct for the sake of experimentation and learning.

For the moment, I am imagining I am a theist and the doctrine of the Christian church is what I believe in. My faith is virtually unshakable. I am bothered by other belief systems, especially those that propose flaws with my own. I believe in Jesus Christ and Yahweh. I believe God speaks to people through his holy word, as found in the Bible. Furthermore, I believe the Bible should be the basis for morality. The Bible is the incarnate word of God, and should therefore be viewed as the ultimate source of knowledge, wisdom, and morality.

This is how I perceive the average Christian would think. If I am wrong, again, feel free to correct me and I will address your points either in a response comment or in a future post. However, moving forward, assuming this to be an accurate depiction of the accurate Christian; the issue of morality can more honestly be discussed. More importantly, the realization that atheism is inherently immoral can also be found.

If the Bible (and by extension the Christian religion and church) is the basis for one's moral code, then atheism is immoral as it is juxtaposed to basic tenants of Christian morality.

When arguing from the side of a theist, there is no doubt that atheists should minimally be perceived as immoral. As in, they act in such a way that "violates moral principles." The moral principles followed by Christians are likely inherently different then those atheists themselves would follow. While we may all agree that in most conditions murder is morally wrong, our justification for this may be rather different. For example, the Ten Commandments plainly states: "Thou shalt not kill." To a Christian, murder is not justified because God has commanded that we not do this. It is sinful and inherently immoral. For an atheist, we are not bound to the will of God, and therefore may conclude that murder is wrong because it violates utilitarian principles (the golden rule), it is socially abhorrent, and similar moral and ethical problems not completely related to the morality and ethics of Scripture.

Since the moral codes of theists and atheists have a tendency to differ, in ways that are both small and great, it is easy to understand how the conclusion that "atheism is immoral" can be reached by those who do not have an atheistic worldview. As such, to a theist, the perception that atheism is, in fact, immoral makes sense. It is logically valid, because the morality these theistic individuals are working off of is one that tells them that atheism IS immoral.

However, the curve ball in the equation is this: By the religious moral code informing us that atheism is immoral, yet other valid moral codes (such as utilitarian moral theory) would suggest that it is not inherently abhorrent; then we are simply stuck in a scenario where the "moral" make-up of an atheist is one that is dependent on how an individual perceives atheists. This my friends is called moral relativism (or subjective morality). The argument that atheism is immoral can go no further then this, as we have no conclusive evidence that any one moral theory is more or less valid then another.

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to stir some debate feel free to comment! Just keep it civil!

Atheism and Morality - Is Atheism Immoral?

It is a fairly common notion that atheists are "immoral." It is my opinion that this is a stigma placed on atheists, and is the result of ignorance regarding what atheism really is. For those unaware, atheism is simply the lack of belief in a god. There are no inherent beliefs tagged along with it. Atheists, without having much ground to stand on, formulate opinions and viewpoints that often contradict traditional and religious ideals. If to be immoral, one must act against the status quo; then perhaps atheism is inherently immoral. If morality is a much more complex issue, and I believe it is, then making the argument that atheists are, at least, morally neutral is relatively simple. As a note: there is no possible way I would make an argument concluding that atheists are morally superior to any other group. This is simply not the case. Additionally, no other group is morally superior to atheists either. If an individuals feels this way, then they are simply making this claim out of ignorance to the variety of moral theories available to work off of (Kantian moral theory, utilitarian moral theory, feminist moral theory, theological moral theory, etc.).

The basis for religious and societal views that atheists are immoral is very much based in historical perceptions of atheists, and by extension pagans.

The English word "atheism" has a literal meaning, which is simply non-theism. Therefore, it is defined in most dictionaries as the absence of theism, or the refusal to believe in a God or gods. However, the Third Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary (copyright 1992,1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company) still retains an older definition which happens to be quite convenient for the fundamentalist hate-mongers:

Atheism

Noun.

1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.

2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.

3. Godlessness; immorality.

(Quote is taken from creationtheory.org)

The fact that under atheism's definition is listed immorality is how we can begin to understand how this perception has slipped into mainstream thinking. This is a rather unfortunate thing, considering how atheists by and large are fairly productive members of society like anyone else. Atheists are only immoral if we hold them to religious standards as dictated by the Bible or the Koran (among other holy books). It is not fair to pigeonhole atheists into the moral code as dictated by religion, considering there are many other "moral avenues" which can be taken. For example, I consider myself an adherent to utilitarian moral theory. While it is not perfect, it seems to be most effective for my own day to day life when I make moral choices. I will elaborate further on utilitarian moral theory and it's relation to atheism in another post, as it would require much more space then I wish to dedicate to it in this post.

The final issue related to the morality of atheists is as follows: with what evidence can anyone successfully make this claim that atheists are inherently immoral? From my own research, there is very little to support this claim. Studies which suggest this are statistically insignificant or are significantly flawed in their data collection methods. While one could certainly argue that individuals atheists are immoral (which is reasonable enough), the entire group is not inherently immoral just because they are atheists. That last statement is most important to the purpose of this article: being an atheist does not imply one is immoral.