Debate:Morality of the atheist

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Proposition

I understand that atheists claim that they can be more moral than a religious person, who can use their religion to manipulate people into say, blowing themselves up, or making people fearful of others. Atheists can say this since they don't believe in a god, which allows them to think rationally without their vision being clouded. Now this I agree with. This is less about debating that atheists are moral and more about finding the way an atheist approaches a situation where there must act morally.

Say an old woman who has lived a good life as a christian, not sinning, helping her community and donating to charities. She now lies on her death bed with a few hours left happy that she will be with God and her family. Now let's say something convinces her hours before dying that she is wrong and that there is no afterlife. This will obviously make her distraught, since she has lived her whole life under a lie. At this point I ask the question, what do you do? If you claim you are a moral, reasonable person, you should feel obligated to help her through her pain in these last few hours. I do express that you are not obligated to help her, but if you are a moral person surely you would feel inclined to comfort her?

However this question can also be addressed to religious people: Say an old man who has lived as a good citizen, and is an atheist and a homosexual. He has donated money to charity, and all the same as the old lady. Only this time he is convinced that God is real and that he is going to hell for sinning. Being gay not believing etc. He is distraught. If you are christian please tell me what you do in this situation.^{— Unsigned, by: 41.53.195.49 / talk / contribs}

As an atheist if someone were dying I'd obviously try to make their last moments as stress free as possible. But I'm not sure that I agree with your premise .. "This will obviously make her distraught, since she has lived her whole life under a lie."

It could make her quite happy as now she knows there is no possibility she will end up in Hell because she (or more likly her parents) happened to chose the wrong religion.--Bob^{"I think you'll find it's more complicated than that."} 20:30, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

"I understand that atheists claim that they can be more moral than a religious person..." You understand wrong. Atheists may argue that religion is not a prerequisite for morality, but I don't think that the argument that being an atheist has the potential for greater morality than does the alternative has much traction. Father Vivian O'Blivion talk 20:43, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

The sole claim of atheism is that there is no reason to believe in a god. If you want to drag morality into the the discussion then you need to address ethical systems like humanism. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 21:35, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

I think what you need here is a proposition - "Revolver was the best Beatles album", "Capital punishment should be abolished" - something where you can argue pro or con; not "What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub?". That said, your second case is dead easy. If your gay atheist sincerely wants to convert, you baptize him, absolve him, and VOOOOM!!, straight up to his 72 gay virgins and all the angels sing Haul Lay Loo. Because nothing's as chock full o' sweet souly goodness as a deathbed conversion.MatsFan (talk) 23:25, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Clearly, atheists have no morals. RightfulGod (talk) 07:08, 26 August 2015 (UTC)