“Atheists and believers have different moral compasses …”
Not really a point to debate … more a sort of resource…
I thought I’d just leave this here … awaiting the arrival of the next “Where do atheists get their morals from … ?.”
(https://www.livescience.com/moral-compass-atheists-believers.html)
Had a look at the article and the claim “a news study shows”. That’s notice, but inconclusive.
To even begin to take such a claim seriously I’d need to see several peer reviews papers which had used used very large populations in their surveys.
In the meantime my basic position remains unchanged: An atheist is a person who does not believe in gods. Nothing else is implied or my be inferred. It is most certainly not a moral, philosophical or ideological position.
My moral code is based on ethical egoism. I’m also rather fond of stoicism and even find hedonism interesting.
“It’s a common question, including among fellow atheists, whether disbelievers even have a moral compass.”
Hmm, is it? Maybe in the US, it’s not a question that troubles most people here, but then secularism and atheism has been increasing among the UK population for decades.
" A 2019 Pew Research Center poll found that 44% of Americans (compared with 26% of Canadians) think that a belief in God is needed to be moral."
Well there you go, I should have read the next paragraph.
" A 2011 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology even found “that the distrust of atheists was comparable to the distrust of rapists,” he said.
Oh dear…
Some of the wording troubles me as well, which is hardly surprising since it’s depicting two distinct groups that are not homogenous groups.
Did they test the moral compass of people who found the Bermuda triangle myths dubious?
According to the story, religious people scored higher on values relating to cohesion, such as loyalty and respect for authority. They sound like very valuable qualities for concentration camp guards, SS members, ethnic cleansers, and priests of all kinds.
My take on this study is that atheists are more likely to question the moral compass of the majority and make decisions based on rational thought. Fairness and decency are more important than loyalty in my opinion.
all morality is subjective. “Morality” ( a set of approved/disapproved societal behaviors) is evolutionary. An objective set of ‘morals’ would presuppose a moral standard, unchanging and rigid, outside human society. Such a thing has never been observed. In fact, such a thing would contradict all recorded history.