The answer is, of course, an unequivocal no. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that makes a religious person inherently more moral or ethical than an atheist or an agnostic. Nothing. Whatsoever.
Any religious person who says there is suffers from the sin of hubris.
I suspect that a religious person may be fearful of divine retribution for wrongdoing. An atheist or agnostic behaves morally because it is the correct thing to do, arrived at via whatever reasoning process the person found, or simply biological proclivity. This is a case where evolutionary psychology offers a powerful explanation: If people did not generally behave in a co-operative, ethical manner, we would have long since killed ourselves off. Imagine what would happen within such a brief span of time as a few centuries if even one person in ten awakened every morning with the determination to kill someone that day. It is likely that our survival would not be prolonged, shall we say.
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Well said. There are good and bad people from all walks of life and all viewpoints, and there’s nothing uniquely amoral (or virtuous) about atheists and agnostics whatsoever.
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Why are you asking this question, though? It’s such a bizarre question.
Although… now that I think back, I’ve had this question asked to me — once quite aggressively — while in the US. Is this an American talking point?
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Yes, there is a discussion going on at another thread on this blog and somebody made a comment in this direction. So I had to adress it immediately because it’s too shocking that people hold such views.
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Yes, many people over the years have tried to convince me that morality is impossible without God. This is so bizarre that I have to be reminded of it, or I forget it. I recall it being written in comments on another of your recent entries.
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That comment spurred me to write this post. It’s very strange to see how many people think they have an exclusive right to morality. They remind me of those folks who believe that if you haven’t kept to the same partner your entire life, you must be incapable of love. Or people who think that if you emigrated, you must have a lower level of intellectual and personal development.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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