Atheists are Moral People, too

My friend Rachel H. recently brought this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education to my attention. I have to say that I connected to many of its observations about non-believers, or apostates, like me. Also, the researcher, Phil Zuckerman interviewed a good number of us unbelievers, and points out that we are highly moral people. See below:

"What are apostates like, as people? For one thing, they are courageous. "There is a bravery," writes the mathematician John Allen Paulos, "associated with disbelief and honest doubt." For many individuals, their loss of faith was frightening, emotionally and psychologically. It takes nerve to openly reject something that is important to family and friends. The apostates I met are also keenly moral: Those who have rejected religion still desire a world of fairness, kindness, goodness, and justice. Finally, apostates are life-lovers—or at least strong life-appreciators. They either don't believe in an afterlife, or they don't worry too much about it. Instead they focus on the here and now, deriving joy, emotional sustenance, and individual purpose by engaging in this world and appreciating the time they have on earth."

This pretty much describes my feelings to a T.