Where do you atheists get your morals?

[TM99]

199. Thank you

Last edited Tue Jan 29, 2013, 09:28 AM - Edit history (1)

Yes, of course, I don't mind if you copy and paste it.

I grew up in a very liberal mainstream church family. I attended the Anglican church through high school. Ever since I was a boy I questioned and never 'believed', however it wasn't until then that I began to identify myself as an atheist. After decades of study, exploration, psychology training, etc., now, if asked, I am ignostic.

I do not accept the proposition of god/dess or god/desses existence as meaningful or valid. It is "not even wrong" as Pauli would say about certain scientific theories. The theist, polytheist, panentheist, etc. all accept the proposition as meaningful and deem it to be 'true' in some form, shape, or fashion. Atheists also accept the proposition as meaningful and deem it be 'false'. Agnostics also accept the proposition as meaningful and deem it be 'inconclusive' without further proof. There are as many 'god/s' as there are human beings to have individual psychological conceptions. Therefore, I tend to address individuals and not religions. No two Christians are alike as are no two atheists. If science does not have an answer for a question, then I am ok with accepting the mystery of not-knowing at this time.

But my first principles no longer rest on the proposition of 'god/s exist'. I find it allows me to approach living with an even more open mind than I espoused as a younger man. I am free to participate or not in the communal aspects of religion as I accept them for the psychological necessities they often are as opposed to supernatural realities so many wish them to be. Some religions and philosophies are more amenable to such ways of thinking - Taoism, Buddhism, certain schools of Hinduism like Vedanta, Ifa, and Philosophical schools such as Stoicism - and those are the ones that most interest me.