Do Your Morals Think?

The greatest gotcha question believers think they can ask an atheist seems to be, "But where do you get your morals from?"  Their smug promotion of this question makes it seem as if we all get our morals and values through some kind of divine ESP, without requiring any sort of human support for what gets transmitted to us.  At least, that is how it should be, but we certainly do receive teaching and reinforcement of what are moral actions from the people around us.  Are our parents playing God when they tell us not to lie?  Are our teachers doing so when they tell us to treat our classmates well? And what about our friends who tell us we said something offensive last night at the bar after a few drinks?  Obviously, our morals come from other people in our society, not directly from on high.  "But, but, but what about the original morals?" believers may whine.  It does not take much imagination to think that these so-called original morals were worked out through trial and error, much as we continue to refine our social morality today.

Still, many believers are not comfortable without some kind of scripture to lean on, a physical testament of the accepted behavior of followers of whatever supernatural being.  The Ten Commandments (cue angelic choirs) is trotted out in Western Countries to fill this role, despite the fact that Christians' own New Testament supposedly makes them unnecessary and perhaps supersedes them with the more loving Beatitudes.  Hardly anybody learns the Beatitudes, however.  Nobody demands to post them outside the court house or city hall.  It is always those Ten Commandments.  Now, several internet writers pointed out just over a year ago that the Seven Tenets of the Satanic Church were actually more moral and better guides to good behavior than the ever-so-sacred Commandments.

It comes down to this: The Seven Tenets put the responsibility on the individual to act in kind and unharmful ways towards others; the Commandments demand obedience without explanation.  Those who follow religious teachings do so without analysis or understanding, even when they are asked to understand their obedience.  It would be difficult to pay serious attention to the Tenets without understanding the reasons, goals, and results.  Without blind obedience, there must be thought and decision-making.  For this reason, atheists have said that believers have no real morality of their own, since they do what they are told, whatever it is.  This is how people commit great crimes as a people, by adhering to obedience to authority instead of true morality, or at least a morality that recognizes the value of the individual.