The immorality of Atheists

I've often heard religious people say that Atheists can't be moral beings because they don't believe in God. To me, this has never made sense. This seems to imply that in order to be moral, one has to be afraid that God is watching, afraid of eternal damnation, or striving for eternal salvation. Shouldn't morality come from within instead of from without?

I would argue that an Atheist who chooses to be moral with no imperative from any kind of higher being is making a more moral stand that a religious person that is only choosing to be moral because of a fear of God. This is not saying that all religious people are only moral because God tells them to be. There are a great number of moral religious people that act as they do because it's the right thing to do as a human being. I do believe, however, that there are numerous religious people out there that only choose to be moral because they're afraid of what could happen to their eternal soul. Without that exterior imperative, these individuals would actually choose to be immoral.

This has always been something that I've believed in, and recently I started re-reading Towing Jehovah by James Morrow. In this book, which is obviously satirical, God has died and his two-mile long body must be towed to the Arctic by a super tanker to preserve it. During the voyage, many of the crew decide to start doing things that are immoral because God is no longer watching, and I honestly believe that this is something that would happen. Many, but not all, people would choose to do what's in their best interest if they didn't think there was a God. This isn't true of the Atheist. An Atheist chooses to be moral or immoral because it's what they want to do, not what they feel they're being forced to do. And I'm not trying to make the argument that Atheists are moral by nature...there are plenty of bad Atheists out there. I'm just saying that those that choose morality do so because of their own nature.

If you don't think that some people would choose to be immoral if given the chance, take a look at how quickly our society is deteriorating. People have so much less respect for one another today than they used to...and if they believed there was no God overseeing their actions, just how low would they sink...

If you're interested in checking out Towing Jehovah, I would highly recommend it if you like good satirical fiction...and you're not easily offended...

Check it out at https://amzn.to/48Lc3Zs