Help needed with essay on atheism

[Gilmore Rabens]

Although Atheism means lack of a belief in god/s and other than that there are no teachings or scripture of documented morals I do feel you can derive something much more meaningful.

From my time on this site I have learnt much more about what an Atheist is and what the difference are between Atheists and Theists.
I think it is best to approach Atheism by desribing what it is not about. There are many misconceptions.

Atheism is not:
- the denial or rejection of god/s.
 - anti religion.
 - a position that there are definately no god/s

Atheism does not have a scripture, does not have a common set of "morals".

Atheists are not evil (be default) and are not motivated by a desire to get away with sinful acts.

Atheism is the natural state of everything that exists, be it living or not (My car, my neighbor's dog and myself are all Atheists).
All Theists were born as Atheists, they were subsequently introduced to the concept of a god and was taught to believe in their flavour of god/s.

In General:
Atheists do not
 - ascribe to life having an objective purpose
 - agree to there being an objective morality
 - have a dependancy on static scripture with regards to understanding what is wrong or right.
 - state that there are definately no gods

Atheists are likley to
 - Have a humanistic view of the world
 - require proof or evidence of theories
 - engage critical thought to ideas and theories
 - be tolerant of others regardless of race, religion, gender, culture, lifestyle, sexual preference...
 - be for equal rights

You could say that if there were such a thing as objective morality then Atheists are more likely to be in tune with this objective morality than Theists. This is because they do not have the bias of scripture dictating what the moralities should be.
You could say that only Atheists are capable of being selfless, since Atheists have no expectation of going to heaven or being reincarnated as some prefered creature due to performing good acts during this life time.

But for the most part Atheists do not think about god/s or lack of god/s. Atheists do not have daily rituals supporting the stance of Atheism. To an Atheist, the label of being an Atheist is a very minor label amongst the multitude of labels that a person has.

How does an atheist's tolerance of others' religion tie in with a sense of being more moral?

[Stevil]

How does an atheist's tolerance of others' religion tie in with a sense of being more moral?

Who said anything about being more moral? Define moral?

[Asmodean]

In my experience atheists tend to be very curious, sceptical of all thing supernatural, independent thinkers, distrustful of authority these things come to mind.

...And they only apply to a group of atheists. Yes, most out-spoken atheists would probably be able to identify with what you said, yet there are those who, despite being atheists, believe in reincarnation and then there are those who really just don't care about the more "supernatural" matters. Then there are small children... So much for distrusting authority there...

...You see what I'm saying, yes? Can you, for instance, say what non-blond people have in common except the color of their hair..? Even in general terms? Am I curious because I'm an atheist or am I an atheist because I'm curious? Or maybe the corelation is so weak it isn't actually significant?

[Asmodean]

In my experience atheists tend to be very curious, sceptical of all thing supernatural, independent thinkers, distrustful of authority these things come to mind.

...And they only apply to a group of atheists. Yes, most out-spoken atheists would probably be able to identify with what you said, yet there are those who, despite being atheists, believe in reincarnation and then there are those who really just don't care about the more "supernatural" matters. Then there are small children... So much for distrusting authority there...

...You see what I'm saying, yes? Can you, for instance, say what non-blond people have in common except the color of their hair..? Even in general terms? Am I curious because I'm an atheist or am I an atheist because I'm curious? Or maybe the corelation is so weak it isn't actually significant?

[Stevil]

How does an atheist's tolerance of others' religion tie in with a sense of being more moral?

Who said anything about being more moral? Define moral?

[Whitney]

Gilmore...do you think that when people ask you questions you could respond to them?  I think that will help you get better answers to your own questions.

mainly posting to see if the posting function is working (it's not very happy when I try to delete things right now so I'll have to try that later).

[Tank]

Are there certain things that atheists tend to have in common?

In my experience atheists tend to be very curious, sceptical of all thing supernatural, independent thinkers, distrustful of authority these things come to mind.

In what ways are atheists independent thinkers?

They tend to be more imaginative and think outside the box, compared to theists that I have come across online. However that may be a factor in the sort of atheists and theists that go online as much as the general population. The atheists I have met online and in real life don't keep referring back to their dogma seeing what it will allow them to think about and how to think about it. As there is no atheist dogma/scripture atheists tend to take an idea and reference it to what they already know with one less huge biasing factor built into their world view. Atheists also know they don't know anything for certain, which is not the case with some theists that I have met. This lack of certainty gives a world view where independent personal thought is the rule, not the exception. I cannot trust anything as absolutly as a fundamentalist theist can.

[Tank]

In my experience atheists tend to be very curious, sceptical of all thing supernatural, independent thinkers, distrustful of authority these things come to mind.

...And they only apply to a group of atheists. Yes, most out-spoken atheists would probably be able to identify with what you said, yet there are those who, despite being atheists, believe in reincarnation and then there are those who really just don't care about the more "supernatural" matters. Then there are small children... So much for distrusting authority there...

...You see what I'm saying, yes? Can you, for instance, say what non-blond people have in common except the color of their hair..? Even in general terms? Am I curious because I'm an atheist or am I an atheist because I'm curious? Or maybe the corelation is so weak it isn't actually significant?

Personally I think that atheism is an effect not a cause. I'm an atheist as a result of my understanding of how the world works and the lack of any reliable evidence for the existance of the supernatural. Any person could possibly come to my point of view. But my true hair colour is determined by my genes and is immutable from that respect. As you say is there a causal link between curiosity and atheism? Well there could be, but there are many curious theists, so I doubt the link is significant.

[Gilmore Rabens]

How does an atheist's tolerance of others' religion tie in with a sense of being more moral?

Who said anything about being more moral? Define moral?

I was just asking if it did.

[Gilmore Rabens]

Gilmore...do you think that when people ask you questions you could respond to them?  I think that will help you get better answers to your own questions.

mainly posting to see if the posting function is working (it's not very happy when I try to delete things right now so I'll have to try that later).

Sorry but the forum was down for a couple of days so I couldn't even view anything. What do you want to know?

[Whitney]

Gilmore...do you think that when people ask you questions you could respond to them?  I think that will help you get better answers to your own questions.

mainly posting to see if the posting function is working (it's not very happy when I try to delete things right now so I'll have to try that later).

Sorry but the forum was down for a couple of days so I couldn't even view anything. What do you want to know?

Other people asked you questions before the forum started having issues...those are the ones I was referring to.

[Stevil]

How does an atheist's tolerance of others' religion tie in with a sense of being more moral?

Who said anything about being more moral? Define moral?

I was just asking if it did.

It was a strange way that you worded your question. I would have expected it as "Do you think an atheist's tolerance of others' religion ties in with a sense of being more moral?"

Really, I think it is difficult to say that someone is more moral than another person without defining a set of morals as the measuring stick. The problem with this is that there are no universally agreed morals.
If you have your own set of morals and you see someone else not adhering to them, then that does not mean that you are more moral than them. Their morals maybe different to yours, so you are plying by different rules.
I would say that it is more likely for an Atheist to be humanistic than it is for a theist. For example when scripture states that it is immoral for someone to be homosexual then it is difficult for a theist to treat a homosexual person as an equal and to give them and their relationships the respect that they deserve. Especially if that homosexual is their own son or daughter.
An Atheist does not have such a static prescribed demand with regards to a stance on this position, hence an Atheist could choose to be non judgmental.