Firstly, I didn't, and don't equate atheism with evil, I am using the exact meaning of ''atheist'' (a person who does not believe in God).
Secondly, I didn't make an argument, I simply asked questions regarding ''why?'', if a person doesn't believe in God, is there a need to care for those people. Maybe other animal species would care if their fellow species were being killed mercylessly in a different part of the world. I don't know. But I doubt it. Why does it matter to an atheist?
I'm not saying that all theists automatically care, but there is scope to connect with ones fellow man through compassion, and empathy, which can be directly understood through God, not only for our fellow man, but for all forms of life. To what degree do atheists care about peopl,e who are not only thousands of miles away, but are not related in anyway to their life and life patterns, and why should they care??
This is a serious question, with no implication or judgement.
You partly answered your own question by admitting that believing in God does not in any way alter the fact that religious people are killing each other.
But your non-judgmental statement that atheists have no "foundation" to be moral, similar to other animals, sounds very much to me like an implication that you equate atheism with amorality (lack of moral standards).
This is wrong on several levels.
a) Moral behavior is not exclusive to scripture. Many animals clearly show moral behaviors. Examples of this abound in domesticated animals, like dogs, apes, elephants, whales, dolphins. This clearly proves that even in the wild morality emerges along with social structures in the animal world.
b) atheism does NOT make a person amoral. Many atheists are actively involved in the Humanities.
c) And last but not least, informed atheists have no way to absolve himself from any sins (intentional or unintentional), unlike confession and absolution from a "holy" person) and have to carry their burden of guilt themselves. "Personal Responsibility"!
OTOH,
d) scripture instructs the "obedient servant" to commit all sorts of crimes, as long as they are committed in the name of God and sanctioned by a religious leader (Crusades, KKK, Jim Jones, Fatwas, Jihads). It is the very exclusivity of organized religions which makes immoral behavior against the "infidels' or atheists, or anyone who is "different from us" a morally "negotiable" activity.
e) More people have been killed in the name of religion than for any other cause, especially in the non-existent cause of Atheism.
common criticism which atheists raise against religion is how violent religion and religious believers have been in the past. People have slaughtered each other in large numbers either because of differences in religious beliefs or because of other differences which are further justified and intensified through religious rhetoric. Either way, religion has a lot of blood on its hands. Can the same be said for atheists and atheism? Haven't atheists killed more people in the name of atheism than religious theists have killed in the name of their religion?
No, because atheism isn't a philosophy or ideology....
http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismmyths/p/AtheismKills.htm
It appears that atheism itself has nothing to do with moral behavior. There are atheists who commit immoral acts, but NOT in the name of Atheism. But to commit immoral acts in the name of Theism seems to me the height of hypocrisy, especially when cloaked with such terms as Truth, Love, Compassion.
IMHO, the truth of "apparent spiritual connectedness" may be found in the function of our "mirror" neural network, through which we experience emotions such as Empathy, from which compassion springs, from which the "golden rule" emerged as a Virtue. The same evolutionary process results in the concepts of Love, Compassion, Respect.
But we are by no means the only animal with mirror neural networks, though they may be adapted to their specific environment. Have you ever watched "field trials'
A field trial is a competitive event at which hunting dogs compete against one another. There are field trials for retrievers, pointing dogs and flushing dogs.
The mental connection of long distance communication between the hunter and his dog is truly astounding. These dogs are trained for mirror responses to a series of visual or auditory commands. The amazing part is that the dog LOVES it, and in addition their performance will be rewarded with approval and a tasty tidbit.
Those are all equivalent to the promises made in scripture. We just wrote it down and then made people subscribe to it, or else. But it was all said with Love in the name of God. Do we ever hear words like this in Atheism?
