I Can Be Moral Without Religious Pedagogy

@Greenbare: Did you not read the study I just sent you? Clearly there is some general consensus of morality. Also, researchers have found that five year olds exhibit morally sound behaviors (far before they can be fully indoctrinated by religion).

Also, the point of this thread like I said countless times is that being an Atheist doesn't make you by default a bad person like many religious people may claim. You're taking it elsewhere. I'm talking about simpleton hyper-religious people who claim that all Atheists are bad people (based on their own moral standards) and that Atheists are responsible for most crimes (which is not true at all). Stay on topic, or leave the thread, dude.

@Greenbare: If you actually studied Islam (and specifically modern Muslims) in depth you would know that that is not the case, and you would also realize that most of today's laws don't align exclusively with religious texts, in fact they contradict a lot of the laws set down in Bible, the Quran, etc. (otherwise we wouldn't even have religious freedom in the United States, women and homosexuals wouldn't have as many rights as they do and slavery would be widely viewed as acceptable).

Many of the "other cultures" you are referring to tend to be far more technologically devolved than the countries you and I live in. People in more modernized nations (even third world countries), have evolved their way of thinking about civil rights and morals on our own accord. Notice how the text in the Bible magically doesn't change overtime, but the opinions that people have about morality do.

The ending I agree with, and that's the only part of your reply that has been on topic.

But anyway, since you've continuously been going off-the-rails, and combating research with anecdotal evidence, I'm going to have to say goodbye.

Boo!! Religion!!! Boo!!!!

I've actually seen more Christians claim that than Muslims.

@Killers: I kind of doubt that.

@Sicarium: Well, it's the truth. I have many Muslim friends, and they've all been incredibly accepting of my lack of belief in a God, but I've met several Christians who looked down upon people who weren't Theistic, and I even had a family-friend who low-key tried to indoctrinate me into Christianity. Anyway, literally look up anything along the lines of "you can't be moral without religion", you'll get some Atheist websites but any religious websites that pop up will be by Christian and Catholic organizations.

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These websites, for example:
http://evidenceforchristianity.org/can-there-be-morality-without-religion/
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/can-you-be-good-without-god

Here are some readings that helped me understand:
http://www.atheismandthecity.com/2013/02/a-case-for-secular-morality-objective.html
http://www.humanreligions.info/secular_morals.html
https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-myth-of-secular-moral-chaos

A person with the username [b]capoman1[/b] on YouTube made this enlightening comment:
[quote]The case for "morality" is pretty simple.

Consider the analogy of driving; there are certain rules that you follow when you drive; why? Even without traffic laws, why do people on the road (almost all drivers) avoid traffic accidents? Why don't people just cross the center line into oncoming traffic?

Because the action of driving has an IMPLIED goal of COMPLETING YOUR DRIVE IN TACT; and everyone else on the road has that same implied goal. Even those people THAT WANT to turn the road into a demolition derby UNDERSTAND that the road is filled with drivers that don't want that, and so recognize that DEMOLITION DERBY ON THE ROAD IS WRONG because it goes against the goals of 90+% of the people on the road, and you will be making the road a place that goes against the almost majority goal.

You can do this same sort of analogy for any behavior that involves people interacting; including LIFE ITSELF.

Like driving, living has the implied goal to "continue living," and hopefully "continue living on a road where we don't have to worry about head on accidents."

So in life, IF YOU ARE DOING ANYTHING that makes "the road" a place that people fear, then you are "doing wrong."[/quote]