A new cartoon has just been posted on the Answers In Genesis website. Said cartoon regurgitates the common claim from Christians that if atheists don't get their morals from God, they'll be rampaging in the streets killing and raping other people. It ignores the fact that you don't see non-believers doing such acts. If this claim by Christians is true, then the newspapers and the daily evening news on television will be filled with stories about atheists getting arrested and jailed for murder, rape, robbery, etc. But this is not happening at all.
There are a lot of studies and research which show that the most secular countries in the world often have less instances of these grisly crimes. The less religious a country is, the more peaceful it is.
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| Photo from Answers in Genesis |
Here's an excerpt from a post in the blog Godless in Dixie which disproves the Christian assertion that atheists are immoral: "Statistically speaking, what is the outcome of non-belief on large populations? Internationally speaking, those countries with the lowest crime rates (like the Scandavian countries and Japan) are among the least religious in the world. On the other hand, the country with by far the highest crime rate (the U.S.) is among the most religious, particularly among developed countries. The same pattern holds true for states within the U.S. as well. Those states with the lowest crime rates (e.g. in New England and the Pacific Northwest) rank among the least religious, while the highest crime rates afflict the Deep South (aka “The Bible Belt”). If disbelieving in a divine Lawgiver led to immorality/amorality, these results should be reversed, and our prison populations would show a higher proportion of atheists than can be found in the general population. In reality, however, surveys of prisoners have shown that less than half of one percent of prisoners identify with atheism. So either atheists are in fact less inclined to criminal behavior or else they are significantly better at getting away with it."
And here's a quote from Matt Dillahunty from an episode of The Atheist Experience: "I get my limits from a rational consideration of the consequences of my actions. That's how I determine what's moral.I get it from a foundation that says my actions have an effect on those people around me and theirs have an effect on me. And if we're going to live cooperatively and share space, we have to recognize that impact. And my freedom to swing my arm ends at their nose. And that I have no right to impose my will over somebody else's will. It's from an understanding of reality not an assertion of authority."
