BlueCross wrote:
quote
Well, don't leave us gasping 'grateful', enlighten us all on what you mean, please.

Why would an atheist come up 'second best'?

unquote

Would you like to begin with ethics?

Do atheists teach their children how to behave ethically?

What are some examples of what they teach?

What would an atheist teach about "holding one's tongue”?

Well grateful.... since 'being an atheist' is not a 'way of life' that would depend on what any particular 'atheist' thinks about that, wouldn't it?

Since 'being an atheist' is not actually a 'club' activity I can only tell you what my children were taught, and that is to question what they see and hear, reflect on their behaviour, operate for the benefit of all, not just oneself, and treat others decently even when it might feel too much trouble... seems to have worked so far.

They were all sent to RE in primary school, all encouraged to have a dip into the Bible as a result, and each has made up their own minds on 'religion' assisted by the behaviour of zealots who would cut off their nose just to spite their face, the 'faithful', and each has noticed how very dishonest these overly 'religious' people appear to be... almost without exception.

But 'an atheist' might have advised you to 'hold your tongue' long enough to avoid posting your first post, since it offered not too much beyond wild opinion, while encouraging you not to hold your tongue in response in your last post, since you have failed to answer the question posed.

As for 'ethics'... I am sorry to have to inform you that not only are 'ethics' not restricted to 'the religious' but it is very hard to find any hint of signs that 'the religious' do actually take too much notice of their own versions of 'ethics'.

Is there anyone else with their perspective on the question of ethics.

What do athiests teach about guarding ones tongue?

Or, perhaps about justice and the application of justice.

Atheism seems to imply that there is no right or wrong (and i have had this said to me by athiests), which seems to be consistent with what The Blue Cross is saying about atheists and it being left to the parents to decide how their children should be raised.

Is this correct? Or are there some rules that should be followed?

grateful... I did not say, or believe , that there is 'no right or wrong' at all.... that is wishful thinking on your part.

I don't buy in to post-modernism or relativism stuff.... if I did, I'd have no problem with some of the nonsense spruiked by believers, would I?

Atheism is just an absence of theism... like not believing in fairies-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden.

I really fail to see how that then translates into what you are desperately trying to make it say.

Maybe you confuse 'atheism' with some poorly defined form of 'anarchy', with your concern over 'rules'?

We all live with 'rules', do we not? Even the lawless have them.

Try reading Richard Holloway, previously Bishop of Edinburgh,, Gresham Professor of Divinity- City of London, Fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh...his slim tome 'Godless Morality: Keeping Religion out of Ethics', 1999, Canongate,Edinburgh... bound to be able to find it on Amazon of nowhere else.

Grateful,

You’ve missed TBC’s point.

<<What do athiests teach about guarding ones tongue?>>

What TBC was trying to tell you (and I thought he made quite clear), was that atheism is not a “thing”, it is not a belief system, and as TBC said, it is not a “club”.

Atheism has no doctrine and no specific set of rules and as TBC also said, it has no “way of life”. Atheism has no more a set of rules or a way of life than the disbelief or lack of belief in fairies has, or disbelief in the Lochness monster has.

You probably don’t believe in fairies or leprechauns because there is no proof that they exist. Yet, like any other theist, you abandon this rational way of thinking when it comes to your religion. For reasons only you yourself can know, you treat your religion as a special case in this regard.

Atheists simply extend this very basic expectation for evidence to religion too.

<<Atheism seems to imply that there is no right or wrong...>>

Atheism doesn’t say that any more than a-leprechaunism says that.

When people who don’t believe in a religion ask themselves what the moral thing would be to do in a particular situation, they don’t consult their non-belief. They simply use their in-built, altruistic instincts that Humans acquired as a survival mechanism long before religions ever were invented.

The same altruistic instincts and commonsense theists use to distinguish the good parts from the nasty parts of the holy books they mistaken think they’ve derived their morality from.

Let me rephrase:

If you are an atheist what do you teach about guarding the tongue, or, if you like, about justice.

Hence no more presumption that atheists agree upon a set of principles or rules of conduct.