of the nearly 2 million people incarcerated in american prisons, less than 1% are atheist.

what does that say about who has better morals? 

My most annoying theist question(being science minded like I am) is, "How can something come from nothing?"

Then you ask them, "How do you propose eveything got here?"

They respond, "god made it."

Then you ask, "What did god make it from?"

And the clincher.... they respond, "nothing."

From their reasoning something just came from nothing, UGH!  

I think the most annoying thing ts their inability to formulate a logical arguement and the lack of respect they have for the person they are talking to. This is a generalisation but I encounter alot of people that like this.

Peter 

My least favorite one is, "You're an atheist? so you hate god?"

I don't understand why, if we're an atheist, we hate God?  I don't hate God. I have nothing against God, I just don't believe in him.

I also don't like most of the ones people have listed as well as a few others.

I like your short answer. Mine gets rather verbose and angry. I hoped that a female JW who made the mistake of knocking on my door last week would ask that question. But she did not.

After reading some of the comments on RRS a couple months back about where our morals come from, I wrote down where and how I developed mine. Not pretty.

I learned my morals from growing up in a Christian based society, through osmosis and a stiff leather belt to the back side. Since my parents never explained what and why, and the topic was never mentioned in school, I learned from watching how the neighbors and family acted, and from hours sitting in front of the TV (1950s). What I saw on TV did not match what I saw in real life, so I guessed at what was right and wrong.

During pre-teen and early teen years, when I tried to emulate the actions of the authority figures around me, (the school teachers, adults at church, and parents/family), I got sick at my stomach, nervous, and ashamed. Was that a reaction to “you will go to hell” if you lie, scam, steal, etc.? It may have been in my subconscious, but never a conscious thought. Doing those things just did not feel good emotionally. But, I kept trying to fit in with the double standard society had set and went crazy trying.

At 39 years old, through a horrific life changing experience, I realized(?) I did not have to live by a double standard. My life became less stressful because my decisions and actions were not based on any “return” or future punishment. At age 50, I realized I had moved into the philosophy accredited to a man who lived 500 years before Jesus – "Do no harm". (Buddha) No “if’s, and’s, or but’s” in their definition of how to live by that.

I am still working at it.

Hiya, Arletta,

It's a tough question to depersonalize, but it can be done. "How can there be morals without <insert supernatural entity>?" It seems to be leading toward, "I think you're a bad person because you're not a god-worshipper," but that doesn't really follow. We all know all humans have morals. Why not play it as a straight question?

If you think about it, you'll realize it's just another version of "who made the universe?" We know the universe exists, but that doesn't tell us anything about how it came to exist. We know morals exist, too, but it's a real leap to assume those morals came from a supernatural moral-creator. Worse, like all supernatural explanations, it gets in the way of investigation. As Clemens wrote, "... it's the things we know for sure that just ain't so."

Humans are a social species. Every social species has rules for getting along together. When individuals violate those rules, they are ostracized, forced to eke out an existance without the support of the social structure, and, naturally, denied the opportunity to easily pass on their alleles to their descendants.

So the next time you hear the question, "If there's no god then how can we have any morals?" have a real answer ready. "They evolved."

As ever, Jesse

If christians really did get their morals from god and the bible, women would be treated similarly to how they ware in strictly muslim countries and stoning would be a regular occurrance for a multitude of crimes.  Many laws and "moral" actions are not mentioned anywhere in the bible.  It really has nothing to do with religion what so ever.

You're all wrong. The most offensive is clearly:
"Are you saved?"

You all have some very good points.  I'm actually pretty new to any kind of debate since I've spent my life as a quiet atheist and avoided confrontations.  I still have difficulties knowing how to respond to such questions as this and others many of you mentioned.  That's probably why I like it here so much, you all are a wealth of information.

Something I have never understood about christianity is the doing of good "deeds" in "gods" name. I have always found it insulting that christians seem to think that helping your fellow human out in any way must be intervention of god... why on earth can't it just be that human nature is to be helpful to each other in most cases, rather than giving credit to some external entity. I take comfort in myself knowing I help others because I want to...not because I am directed by some fantasy of a greater being...and inflicting my beliefs on "the un-enlightened", let them be as humans with their own beliefs I say!