When I was in the Marines I met a lot of people who would gladly kill another person, especially if in another country. I was like them to a point. If you have ever watched Generation Kill on HBO, that is the mentality. A lot of these guys would kill you and not even care of the consequences. May be the world is just divided in what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman refers to as Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves. Honestly, I am not the most morally minded person out there, although I am not killing people left and right. But I do not care either way. Some people are cowards who hide behind traditions and fabricated moral codes to protect themselves and are unwilling to live in a chaotic environment. I have been to Somalia and honestly I would not want to live there. If you're not worried about self-preservation or others, then morality does not seem to be a big deal. If an atheist claims that it does, then what distinguishes the positive atheist from the dogmatic theist? I think humans, philosophical or not delude themselves with the idea that life is worth living and that morality exists independent of our own minds. It seems to me both the atheist and theist choose to make up their own realities.

I see you're back at it.

Our morals come (in part) from our empathy for others. If you've lost that, I can understand why you might think that morals are not important. The empathy I'm talking about is hard-wired and not the end result of reason.

Back at what exactly and why are you the only one to ever respond? If empathy is hard-wired, then why do some lack it and why do some people ignore it? I do not understand why you guys at the ACA recycle the same regurgitated uncritical bullshit. It is like you guys read from a script, but that implies preparation which you people lack. Is that why you guys define your atheism as a lack of belief? It would be nice to know what research you are cited here, since i doubt you did yourself.

Frank,

I respond because I'm the moderator and I see all of the posts.

When I say that empathy is hard wired, I mean it's part of how our (normal) brains are wired. There are many people who are born without empathy. They are generally considered sociopaths. And is is possible to damage someone to the point where they lack empathy. I'm thinking of children in some African countries who get swept up into the war and made into killers.

My point is that morality has some objective basis -- in our evolutionary past. It is true, too, that what we call morality is also influenced by culture (including knowledge).

We define our atheism as a lack of belief because we can make definite statements about our own beliefs, but we can't prove a universal negative: that there is no god anywhere in the universe. I'm sorry if the definition bothers you.

What, specifically, would you like research for? If you've already decided that us guys at the ACA recycle bullshit, why should I waste my time responding to you?

Don, you do realize that "normal" means average and implies no value to it. Also, there is a moving a way in psychology from this interpretation. As far as the definition goes it seems to bother not only theists but serious atheists as well. Again, there is that mantra of yours " you're just wasting my time". Don, you ever stop to think you are wasting your time responding about wasting your time? No, wonder you define atheism as a lack of belief, because it would be wasting your time to think about actually being coherent and consistent.