The huge hole in the author's argument is that atheists believe that this is the only world we or our children, grandchildren etc will ever know and that if we don't look after it they will suffer the consequences. Anyone who believes in an afterlife doesn't have to give a toss about the world we live in because they are looking to a future imaginary existence with an imaginary god to meet their needs. I am very happy to make my own decisions based on human decency and enjoy my immortality based on the laws of physics: the matter of which I am comprised can never be destroyed. It may at some future time form part of a sentient being, and my atoms will be distributed amongst myriad life forms. How awesome is that?

I am an athiest. I have a guiding morality. Arrived at after careful contemplation and much thought. Also driven mostly by self interest.
Do whatever you want, total freedom, as long as your actions in no way harm another person.

I want my free will and to make my own choices about my life.
I dont want to be harmed so I can hardly commit acts which cause others harm. At least not logically and rationally.

For the author to state that it is impossible for an atheist to be moral is a load of bollocks. Indeed as far as I am concerned, although I am far from perfect, my morality far eclipses that of your average godbotherer who supports an ideology of lies and fantasy that has many many many times caused great harm to untold numbers of people.

The Catholic church in NSW proved the disconnect between religion and morality when it opposed ethics classes in schools because it didn't want Catholic students to miss out.

NathanF – your chess analogy breaks down because with chess there is a goal to aim for – winning the game – but in a universe that has come into existence unintentionally and which has no purpose, there is no goal, nothing to aim for. One “move” in such a universe is as good or bad, as meaningful or meaningless as any other move. You may not like what other people do and they may not like what you do but neither of you are right or wrong.

Of course you can care about what other people believe but it makes no difference what anyone believes. Some beliefs may lead to the total destruction of the planet but, despite the fact that you may not like that happening, that does not make it a bad thing to have happen. There is no reason why the planet or the universe ought to exist.

Mikk – you say that you have derived your own guiding morality and that your morality includes the principle that you want to be free to do what you want to the extent that you don’t harm others.

Of course you can choose to make up such moral principles and live by them if you want to. But in an atheistic universe no one else is obliged to make up the same moral principles as yours and live by them. If they want to rape and pillage as much as they wish, it is meaningless for you to claim they are acting wrongly, they are just doing something you happen not to like. After all, you admit you have simply made up your principles and they have made up theirs and there is no basis on which you can establish that your principles are the right ones and theirs are wrong.

You may claim that they are being illogical or irrational but there is no requirement in an atheistic universe for people to act logically or rationally. Besides it could be argued that it is neither illogical or irrational to rape and pillage.

The author makes clearly has no idea what atheism is or means for those who do not believe in a sky-dwelling deity. It was obvious from the beginning when it was stated "Whilst Australia has always experienced extreme weather events, it now seems that we are experiencing these extreme weather events more frequently...". No evidence that the statement has any basis in fact but is simply an assumption. From there it just gets worse.

That is one of the poorest articles I've ever seen published in Online Opinion.

JP- Again you have avoided the question of how a theist goes about deciding which set of beliefs and actions are the correct ones. Can you provide an answer to that?

Also your point about the universe having no goal is correct on a basic level. However we as a species have come into existence and are capable of using our brain to make our lives better. What constitutes "better" is basically what helps us survive because that's the basic goal of living organisms.