How my mother taught us the reciprocity rule.

[MineralMan]

The golden rule, if you prefer. She is and was an atheist. It was simple, really.

She didn't make rules we had to follow or be punished. What she did was to say a very simple thing when we did something rude or hurtful: "How would you feel if someone treated you that way?" It wasn't just a throwaway question, either. She insisted on an answer that demonstrated that we understood the problem.

When we were little, we heard it often. As we got older, we heard it less and less. Little by little we learned to ask it for ourselves before doing things. Turns out it applies to just about everything.

No commandments or detailed rules. No deity waiting to punish us. Just that question. My mother is and was a very smart person.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. That says it all!

[Civic Justice]

2. in the simplest form

As a child many of us were taught... The Golden Rule..... and the Ten Commandments.

In the whole of it, there is one rule and ten commandments, pretty much taught by one format of phrasing of the another... within all the religious ideologies.

Then... the books present many parables, which serve to show example of these in actions.

[trotsky]

9. That's simply not true.

And several of your ten commandments are in direct violation of the US Constitution.

[BigmanPigman]

3. When I taught first graders they were all about "fairness".

It is a really big thing with them (and me too). I ran a very democratic classroom and we voted anonymously with secret ballots about their issues and concerns constantly. The first rule that THEY wanted at the beginning of every school year was "treat each other the way you want to be treated", basically the Golden Rule/do unto others, etc. It worked like a charm. Their second favorite rule was "no cuts in line".

[MineralMan]

4. That's terrific!

[central scrutinizer]

5. Atheists do the right thing

Because it is the right thing to do.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, some do, anyway.

[Major Nikon]

8. The point being the motivation

Atheists who do the right thing don't do so because of a holy poltergeist's conveniently unverifiable carrot and stick.

If you really need a sky daddy to keep you on the straight and narrow, you probably don't have any strong sense of ethics to begin with.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes, of course. I was just commenting on the generalized statement.

Atheists have ethical standards they follow, typically. Often, they're similar to religious morals, because both were created by cultures, not delivered by deities. A good case can be made that all such rules are based on the basic reciprocity rule. All of the ethical standards I follow can be explained on that basis.

Religious morals are punishment-based. If you violate them, some deity will punish you sometime in the future. Atheists ethical standards are based on right action, instead. They are followed because they are good standards for societies, in general. They are positive values, not negative statements.

For me, that is the primary difference between atheism and religious belief. I am a positivist.

[Major Nikon]

12. Doing the right thing when nobody is watching is a sign of character

[Major Nikon]

7. The golden rule most certainly isn't unique or original to Christianity

Many, if not most organized religions have some form of it, probably because it's more strongly related to common sense.

[MineralMan]

11. In fact, it's pretty much universal in human cultures.

It's a rather obvious sort of common-sense practice.