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Comment by pbiggar | Hacker News Reader

I've found that geeks tend to be either very religious, or very atheist, but rarely in between (or at least much more rarely than in real life). Perhaps it is the same with other moral issues.

(Alternatively, perhaps JGC is very religious, and his religion guides his views on gay adoption and marriage.)

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What? Being theist or atheist is not a moral issue, it's a philosophical issue about the nature of the universe.

The notion that atheists are less moral than theists is a common misconception.

I don't think he was saying that one (religious or atheist) is more moral than the other. Just that when we geeks take a stand on a fundamental question, whether it's moral or philosophical/theological, we often do it with conviction.

That depends on what you mean by 'moral.' In common usage, it is a synonym for 'ethics,' but in older usage it had religious connotations. Using the older meaning, a 'moral atheist' is an oxymoron. The fact that many religious ethicists still use the word this way leads to some unfortunate misunderstandings.

I would argue it is more moral to be atheistic than to believe in some god.

And a theist would argue that being theistic is more moral. This devolves simply to the question of whether theism or atheism is correct, so the question of the morality of either position is largely beside the point.

EDIT: Hacker News is not allowing me to reply to you, so I'll ask my question here: If a group of atheist people shared a set of contradictory beliefs, requiring vile and immoral actions, would that make atheism immoral?

One argument is that atheists are more moral because they are making moral choices based on what is good and right for other people, instead of saving up their virtue in a bank account in the sky to be cashed in on when they get to Heaven. That is, they aren't being good just because they think God is watching and writing everything down in a little book, they are really just being good.

It's essentially the same argument that Karma is a moral cop-out: you should be good for its own sake, not because the universe is keeping score will reward you in this life or the next.

Except, theistic philosophies (religion), being based on set of contradictory beliefs, allow, no, even require actions from humans that we now consider vile and immoral.

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