What Do You Mean Atheists Don't Have Morals?

[cleanhippie]

[bvf]

1. Yay! Cool sentiment! n/t

[rhett o rick]

2. But maybe I want to be exploited. Did you ever think about that?

I was raised in the American culture that teaches us how to be victims of exploitation. God Dam Atheists (as if he needs my demand to do such).

Did you ever wonder why Neil degrasse Tyson doesn't believe in God? He is God. Duh!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Anybody that's an astrophysicist is per se cool.

Cool by definition.

[rhett o rick]

6. Saying that God is cool has to be sacrilegious. But if you don't believe in God, you can't be

sacrilegious by definition. Mr. Tyson is cool.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. There is a lot of truth there.

My brother and sisters and I discussed starting a church just for that reason. But we didn't. Because we had morals. But we had a lot of fun coming up with the whole concept of The Church of The Round---where the devil could never corner you.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. How about the Church of the Ground Round...

where communion means eating tasty cheeseburgers?

[RufusTFirefly]

5. Mark Twain on one religion's sacred book

Apparently, not everyone has suffered from moral qualms.

Here's Mark Twain writing about a particular sacred book. I've left off the incriminating details so as not to blatantly offend anyone, although the subject should be fairly obvious.

All men have heard of (this particular sacred book), but few except the "elect" have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from (the religion's key city). The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so "slow," so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print. If (the sect's prophet) composed this book, the act was a miracle—keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, according to tradition, merely translated it from certain ancient and mysteriously-engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out-of-the-way locality, the work of translating was equally a miracle, for the same reason.

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James's translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc., and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass" was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

9. I grew up Mormon, so I have no compunctions about posting an unedited version of Twain's missive

Joseph Smith was a con-man and child rapist, and I'll point it out every time the topic of Mormonism's brought up. We're in the Atheists & Agnostics group here, so there's no need for you to censor your posts.

Mark Twain, reviewing the "Book" of Mormon:

All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the “elect” have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so “slow,” so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle—keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, accourding to tradition, merely translated it from certain ancient and mysteriously-engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out-of-the-way locality, the work of translating was equally a miracle, for the same reason.

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as “exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,” etc., and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to pass” was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet

[RufusTFirefly]

11. Thanks! I saw the thread on the Home page and didn't notice that it was from the A & A group

Phew!

I've been alerted before for what I thought was obvious sarcasm, so I've grown a little skittish.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. There's a line. Queue up.

I'd post images, but I think you can guess who I'm talking about, in general.

[AlbertCat]

8. What Do You Mean Atheists Don't Have Morals?

I don't have the wall space.







Oh MORALS!..... not murals

[jaded_old_cynic]

12. What about Morels?

http://www.morels.com/photos/

Mmmmm. Tasty.

[Rainforestgoddess]

13. I am an atheist, and I paint murals!

Roth Mural:

[AlbertCat]

14. Kewl!

But is it moral to paint a mural of morels?

[deucemagnet]

15. It's a very rural mural.

Perhaps Rainforestgoddess can paint a moral, rural morel mural?

[Rainforestgoddess]

17. I could.

I'll pm my rates. Oh, plus travel expenses, I imagine.

[Rainforestgoddess]

16. I could do one and see how it makes me feel.

Have a blank wall that's crying out for a fungassy makeover?

[onager]

18. And your fellow atheist left them all over Mexico City!

"I am an atheist and I consider religions to be a form of collective neurosis." - Diego Rivera. Good thing he doesn't post in the Religion forum, I guess...

I'm sure RFG has forgotten more than I will ever know about murals and Diego Rivera. So I'm just ranting to hear myself rant (as usual).

But anyway...Mexico City is the mother lode of murals! Besides the ones in the museums, they're all over the city as decoration. Walking around there is a real treat for the eyes.

Chapultepec Castle has a great forced-perspective mural painted on a ceiling. Depicts a famous event during the 1846 war when a Mexican military cadet grabbed the Mexican flag and jumped over the wall to his death. When you look up at the mural, he appears to be falling right on top of your head.

While I was gawking at that mural, our tour guide said: "You call it the Mexican-American War. We call it 'Invasion de los Norte-Americanos.'"

Here's Diego Rivera's "The Inquisition In Mexico," with some heretics about to roast:



And a bonus detail from another Rivera mural - an Aztec princess showing off her tats:

[Rainforestgoddess]

20. I would love to see them in person some day!

And speaking of Rivera....

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-flower-sniffer-margaret-rolfe.html


Another thing I did - I make pastiches of famous paintings for the two vet clinics my husband and I own.

[AlbertCat]

21. he appears to be falling right on top of your head.

Yes...I saw that when I went to Mexico City a million years ago.

I remember tons of public art everywhere.....mainly in the center of the many traffic circles.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

19. Moral Orel - proof doesn't prove anything

[DetlefK]

22. There's a good joke about atheists not having morals:

Next time a believer says that you don't have morals because you are an atheist, whisper into his ear:
"That's right. And I also don't believe in hell. You know what's holding me back from committing murder? NOTHING!"

I forgot where I read that.

[AtheistCrusader]

23. WHat? I take excellent care of my teeth!

[Jovi-Balani]

24. Morals shmorals - lets just all murder each other while stealing.

Saying we dont have morals is another way of calling us animals - or suggesting that somehow the religious are more 'evolved' than athiests - ironically.

But seriously, i cant believe i havent seen it on this thread - Sam Harris' The moral landscape just blows this argument out of the water.

check out his ted talk above- kick ass awesome.