Where do you get your morals from?

I am an atheist, in that while I don't know that there is no god, I see no need of a god for the universe to exist as it does now, and so I assume due to lack of evidence that there is no god, furthermore, I am assured that the theist knows no-more about the universe than myself.  If there is one true religion, then how, with the dizzying array of belief systems, each with its plethora of sects, can one ever know which it is?

But that's not what this entry is about, rather it is about the infuriating argument some theist use as an attack on the non-believer.  If you don't believe, then where do you get your morals?  This is a common question one sees in many forums where believer and non-believer congregate together.


However, I see it as a really poorly thought out question.  The question implies that the religious person gets his or her morality from their scriptures or theology, however, I find this to not be the case, if that were so, then the moral beliefs of all Christians would be exactly the same and mirror the bible scripture perfectly.  Ditto Muslims, Jews, Hindus and etc.  Each religious group would have exact and unchanging moral codes in accordance with their religious texts and dogma.


This is simply not the case.  Not only do different sects with in a religion espouse different moral beliefs, different individuals within the same church will often hold radically different beliefs about what is and is not moral.  It's as if they were each coming to different conclusion's about morality irrespective of scripture.


This is, I propose, exactly what is going on. The believer and the unbeliever are both using the same processes to come to a set of moral understanding through their culture, introspection, and understanding of individual rights and duties.  That the believer dresses his beliefs with passages of scripture is no different than when either of us quotes a bit of literature or poetry that encapsulates an idea or feeling.  Good people of faith will unfailingly quote passages decrying believers to do good to others, do good works and etc., and bad people of faith will find plenty of passages to cloak their own prejudices and nastiness.  There are plenty of good and bad bits in most religious texts for this practice to thrive.