My least favorite claim is that morality has an absolute source in religion, and that humanity would have no morals if we were non-theistic.  August Berkshire, the president of the Minnesota Atheists has been studying the morality found within religion, and the depvelopment through non-religious sources of morality and ethics.  Sociology, social psychology and other social sciences have examined evolutionary roots of morality as have philosophers.  Now even evolutionary biology has made some interesting discoveries, suggesting that morality is not necessarily unique to humans.  If non-human animals can be good without God, are humans weaker and need God?  

 

ETHICS

Lawrence Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development

 

HOW MORAL ARE CHRISTIANS?

unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity - David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons

   

 

“Religious Leaders Battle Abuse Bill in New York” - The New York Times

Subscribe to FFRF’s Freethought Today newspaper to get listings of “Black Collar Crimes”

 

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

“The Character of God in the Bible” - August Berkshire

 

NATURAL ETHICS

Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others - Marco Iacoboni

On Being Moved: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy - Stein Braten, ed.

Mirrors in the Brain - Giacomo Rizzolatti, Corrado Sinigaglia, & Frances Anderson

Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved - Frans de Waal, edited by Stephen Macedo & Josiah Ober