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atheist how many here ?
#18
kaboobie Wrote:Do athiests believe in absolutes? I know that there are definitely truths that science has given us (such as, the laws of physics)... but as far as moral absolutes... is there a difference between right and wrong? and without a diety to provide some sort of moral judgment, how are absolutes determined?
There's no way to answer this question for all atheists. Atheism isn't a religion; It's no more than the lack of belief in any deity, so you can't assume that atheists have any more in common than the lack of that specific belief.

To answer your question from my own personal standpoint, I would say that there aren't any absolutes, even within science. I think we should gauge the confidence we put in any claim or belief according to the availability and quality of evidence and counter-evidence regarding said belief. It would be unreasonable to put absolute, 100% confidence in anything because none of us are omniscient. There's always the possibility of some currently unknown information which would show even something like our understanding of gravity to be completely incorrect, no matter how slim that possibility may be.
When it comes to morality, I believe that all of us, whether religious or not, get morality from a combination of intuition which is based on our evolutionary history and personal experiences within various societies and cultures. Our social morality has changed over the course of history and will continue to do so, and I consider these changes to be in an overall positive direction. I think we should strive for a practical, utilitarian morality in which we try to allow the greatest number of people to be as happy and healthy as possible.
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