Do we? I didnt know that I am a mother of two and grandmother of five I am pretty grounded in my own morality - I don't hurt anyone and not sure that life has a meaning that I could make up it just unfold as you live it - What planet are you on Ur anus?

Well, I think that pretty much applies to EVERYONE.

So Bible fairy tales are religious and Atheists invent their own stories come on now. How wrong is that.

I'll take that as a compliment. Indeed, most of us are self aware and pretty creative

That said, since god does not exist all morals are made up... why is it that 99% of the people in jail are religious? If you want to read some depraved sinister lack of morals try the Bible... a book that has no moral problem with slavery. My life has meaning with out a contrived fantasy, thank you for your concern.

scoff away! so what! its one way to live life here on earth, hurts no one and at least it is my choice, my life, my way for dealing with it-

I take issue with the idea of 'fantasy' morals when we are talking about the choice of which of the 320,000,000 gods we might be wanting to appease or more simply none of them..It wasnt a really good sell was it prof!

That is correct, we use nature, laws of physics and science in general. Afterall have you ever seen a book of directions that came with the first hominids? No scripture or man words can change the fact that we humans use intellect to advance and religion to fall back.

What is the problem, exactly, with thinking for ourselves vs. being flogged into submission?
This is a very weird thing to post on here, IMO......

Ditto

Much better that I find MY Life Meaningful it is My life after all. Who wants to follow someone elses definition of Meaning as written and interprited by soneone else. That my friends is the definition of insanity!

And so do theists. How many are okay with stonings for disobedient children or not keeping the Sabbath, or any cruel and unusual punishments for that matter, in this life at least. Did not secular moral philosophy play a crucial part in ending slavery, creating equal rights for women, and so many other moral advancements we now take for granted. That's much superior to uncritically accepting your morals and meanings of life from a fantasy god or primitive iron-age goatherders?

What a pile of shit.

So do religious. So what?

I can only laugh as it's pretty obivous no one actually read the article below the byline......

Well, when I see any article the first thing I want to know is where the author is coming from. You know, what appears to make him/her tick. So, as I always do, I did a quick search of Mr. Weikart's activities. Here's basically what I found. Most of this was copied from Wikipedia articles with language adjusted where needed.

He is indeed a professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus. It's what else he indeed is that tells the story in more detail. He happens to be a senior fellow for the Center of Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute. Just this item comes close to telling all.

The Discovery Institute (DI) is a politically conservative non-profit think tank based in Seattle, Washington, that advocates the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design (ID). Its "Teach the Controversy" campaign aims to permit teaching of anti-evolution, intelligent-design beliefs in United States public high school science courses alongside accepted scientific theories, positing that a scientific controversy exists over these subjects. The Center for Science and Culture is the action part of DI and lobbies for the inclusion of creationism in the form of intelligent design (ID) in public school science curricula as an explanation for the origins of life and the universe while casting doubt on the theory of evolution.

Our friend is also on the editorial staff of the Access Research Network (ARN) which is an American non-profit organization that reports on science, technology and society from an intelligent design perspective. ARN primarily disseminates information via its website, located at ARN.org, which contains commentary, articles (both original and from other sources), videos, links, and a bookstore, all focusing on intelligent design. Between 2006 and 2011, ARN also published an annual list of "Top 10 Darwin and Design News Stories" compiled by ARN staff and released at the end of each year.

Weikart received a bachelor's degree in 1980 from Texas Christian University, a master's from Texas Christian University in 1989, and a doctorate in history from University of Iowa in 1994. He is married to Lisa Weikart and they have seven children.

So, aside from trying to take over the world by fucking like rabbits, it is apparent that "Dr." Weikart may have some sort of agenda.

Just a minor additional note: The above organizations, with the exception of UCS, are tax exempt "ministries" that our tax dollars subsidize.

fantasies have to be moral ? well that's no fun

And theists make up a fantasy god to justify their flawed morals and to coerce their followers into living for a fairytale afterlife.

What's his point? That atheist make up our own morals? Of course we do, but ours are based on what's good for real, living human beings. That we find meaning in life without an imaginary, tyrannical father figure? WTF is wrong with basing life on real, tangible, quantifiable truth?

No more than those who claim to get their fantasy morals and meanings of life out of a "holy" book.

Well non-believers don't believe something simply because it is written in some book! And, yes, we might pick and choose what to believe...if we can't make good sense out of a matter, we may not believe it! No where is it written, that in order to be a decent human being we must embrace Christianity...except in their Bible! Where is it written that we must believe the promoters of Christianity? It isn't written anyplace that we should embrace 'non-belief,' ...we just make our own choice by NATURE!

"Atheists upset Richard Weikart, and here’s why.

The history professor at California State University (and author for the conservative Regnery publishing company) can’t see how non-believers find meaning in life. He doesn’t like the results of two studies that say that we aren’t nihilists at all, that we find meaning and purpose to more or less the same degree that faithists do. Weikart thinks we are cooking the books."

Isn't it nice that we have these kind folks quite willing to explain that we don't know what we're talking about? That they are here to tell us what to feel, what to think. How kind are they to show us the error ofattempting to be our own moral guides.

Those things don't need to be "made up" by any person or religious organization. They exist in nature and in the collective conscious. Try again?

And if you believe that, then you are a sucker.

If you believe that humans have no morals without "god," you have an extremely negative view of humankind. Religions reflect the values of a group of people, not vice versa. So, we see that there are universal beliefs (it's wrong to kill people for no reason) and other values that are specific to individual groups. For example, the Abrahamic religions were set in an era and area of rampant violence and the biblical god rationalizes rampant violence, routinely wiping out entire groups of people and killing innocent children. Most atheists consider themselves "humanists" and ascribe to the same values of most peaceful religions: do unto others as you would have them do to you; do not kill others; do not steal; be kind. While christians look to the biblical Ten Commandmants as a moral code, it is really a self-serving document that serves the religious leaders of the day - see the first four commandments. If your god exists, he seems to be much more concerned about his own ego and domination than he does a moral code. The first four commandments to honor him and follow his religion come before any moral lessons, emphasizing his priorities.