People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to the study.
The team behind the research found that most religions were similar and had a moral code which helped to organise society.
But people who did not have a religious background still appeared to have intuitive judgments of right and wrong in common with believers, according to the findings, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Dr Marc Hauser, from Harvard University, one of the co-authors of the research, said that he and his colleagues were interested in the roots of religion and morality.
Telegraph: Atheists ‘just as ethical as churchgoers’
(via Religion News)
February 10, 2010 at 4:04 am
I wouldn’t be so bold as to generalize, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that atheists are morally purer of heart than people who rely on religious doctrine to tell them right from wrong. Morality is built into us and it would seem better to trust one’s insticts than to blindly follow a book.
February 10, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Hey! That’s a TTC bus!
I was wondering why a UK article would be using a Toronto bus, but I see it’s just one you’ve found.
Even so, horray for atheists, and horray for Torontonians. (Really though, who’s surprised?)
February 10, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Yeah, it was just the first picture of one of those atheist buses I found. I hadn’t realized before that the meme had crossed the pond to Canada.
February 11, 2010 at 12:51 am
Any moral choice must involve choice, a decision. If God knows the future, the future can be known and thus no choices are possible. Thus if a future-knowing God exists then morality cannot. If God a future-knowing God does not exist, morality is possible. Thus theists can never be moral.
February 11, 2010 at 9:21 am
No… Theists can be moral… but only if they are wrong about the existence of god. lol.