I dare say nobody on either side accused atheists and agnostics of having no
morals.
Well, that takes some thinking about. I don't say yes, I don't say no. But it's not an obvious matter.
In mixed societies of some atheists, some agnostics, and some believers, morals have generally been those developed by the believers and adopted, usually through social pressure, by the atheists and agnostics. (No, I don't have a source for that. But that's the way, historically, it has developed.)
But assume pure atheism with no believers to provide a moral base. What, then, would morality be based on?
If the Soviet Union had been able to totally abolish religious belief and become a purely atheistic society of atheists, would they have been a moral society? (Were they even as they developed closer to that goal?)
I wouldn't be as hasty as you are to suggest that atheists can have morality independent of the structure of society which has been established by believers. |
