Famous Atheists...Reveal Where They Get Their Values

[Rob H.]

Excerpt follows. Full article here.

Famous Atheists Including Richard Dawkins, David Baddiel And Dan Snow Reveal Where They Get Their Values From

...

Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and writer
“Everyone is born with an inbuilt moral purpose. It springs from mankind's evolution as a social being, acting collaboratively, with altruism and good of the community hard-wired.

It needs no orders from elsewhere to tell people to be good - they know it already as a part of the human condition. Conflicting selfish impulses tug in the other direction, a life-long tussle that the religious would call "God and Satan".

"But placing moral laws and rules in the hands of a book written by some external creator, judge, father, law-maker, infantilises us and makes us less responsible for creating a society around us that benefits everyone.

Goodness is a social value, the effect you have on all around you and the wider society, not a secret personal matter for the sinner to be privately weighed in the scales by a God after death. Humanism is not a mere absence of religion but a positive value that puts people and their societies at the heart of life."

I got mine from Battle Creek, Michigan. They came with a free pair of X-Ray Spex, so it was too good a deal to pass up.

[Rainforestgoddess]

1. from the bottom of a box of cracker jacks!

Isn't that where everyone gets theirs?

[RussBLib]

2. The Golden Rule is all I needed

I somehow remember hearing the Golden Rule as a little kid. Once I grasped it, I think I knew just about everything I needed to know about morality.

And of course the Golden Rule and its variants pre-date Christianity, although some Christians try to "claim" it for Jesus.

So, no, one does not need the Bible to have morality. How preposterous that is.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Got mine at a church garage sale. They were hardly used at all. What a deal.

[AlbertCat]

4. I murdered some guy and stole his.

[Rob H.]

5. D'oh! Wish I'd thought of that

I could've saved money on shipping!