The question "Does God exist?" does not obviously contain any moral value. Even if you believe that our sense of morality is somehow bestowed upon us by a deity, it is yet another matter whether acknowledgment of this deity is a necessary condition for acquisition of morals. A simple proof by contradiction can dismiss this second question: There exist many atheists with a strong sense of morals.
Analysis and application of morality can and should therefore take place without mention of a deity.
Here's a practical challenge to those who insist that morality cannot be present without acknowledgment of a deity. Many atheists and nontheists, believe that the delivery of accessible socialized medicine is a key moral issue in modern society. If somebody, being an ignostic antitheist, is unable to possess a proper sense of morality, then there must be something wrong with the following morality-based proposition that (s)he believes in strongly. Tell me what's wrong with the following statement: The american healthcare system cannot be good if it simultaneously makes some people extremely wealthy while denying crucial care and inducing financial and health crisis for 40 million others?
Have you seen the newest PC put out by Dell? A pretty mean machine... But its capabilities don't compare to the capabilities of the company that made it. Likewise, if God exists and is truly supernatural, He wouldn't compare to His creation. To often we think only of supernatural intelligence, but He would have to be transcendant in more ways than one. Although PCs generate a lot of brainpower, they can't do near as much as their manufacturer can do- they can't move, install new hardware, or upkeep themselves. Even though humans may exhibit "goodness" but mankind's definition of good is twisted and perverted from God's definition. The Dell may not recognize its maker, but it still exhibits good qualities instilled by its maker. Athiests may not recognize God, but just because athiests are good does not make a credible argument against the goodness of God.
First of all, the post is not saying whether god is good or bad. All it says is that Athiests can have morals that are just as strong as anyone elses.
Further more, you seem to be suggesting that only athiests are comparible to the comuter because, like the computer, the athiest doesn't recognize its maker. Allow me to turn this around. You suggest that humans are more than machines because of their greater menatal abilities. This includes the ability to think about things, interpret them, question the validity of ideas and so on and so forth. I'm sure you get the point. The computer, though it can quickly carry out tasks is unable to think about the task. Now the turn around. The theist beleives that there is a higher power that must be worshipped. They do this based on faith. The athiest thinks about it and discards that faith because of the lack of proof.
P.S.
I don't actually think this way. I'm just suggesting be careful with anologies.
...but I think that this quotation (from my favorite founder, Thomas Jefferson) speaks directly to the question at hand...
"If we did a good act merely from the love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? It is idle to say, as some do, that no such thing exists. We have the same evidence of the fact as of most of those we act on, to wit: their own affirmations, and their reasonings in support of them. I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in Protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in Catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than love of God." ~ Thomas Jefferson
percivale
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"Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici." ~ V.
... I think all parties raise a good question. I don't think people are moral from fear or love of God. I think there are people who are, those pseudo-christians who do good works to prove that they're better than others. But, I think most of the time, people do it to help another out. I think that generosity, compassion, etc. are personality traits, and maybe those were bestowed upon us by a deity, but I think it's a mixture of both nature and nurture. This does however, throw into questions certain philosophies of human nature. Some will say that the basis of human action is the will to power or ambition. But how does this explain random good works that people do when nothing good can come back to them?