Why rejecting divine command does not mean rejecting right and wrong
The moral compass of the atheist has long been under suspicion by religious critics. Without the commandments of a god or the threat of divine punishment, how can an atheist distinguish right from wrong? The assumption lingers: if morality isn’t dictated from above, it must collapse. This belief is not only wrong—it misunderstands both the foundations of ethics and the nature of human cooperation.
Atheists are not moral relativists by default. They are simply unconvinced that moral truth requires supernatural origin. Ethical principles, for many non-believers, are rooted not in dogma but in reason, empathy, and shared human experience.
The Myth of Divine Morality
Christopher Hitchens was direct in his criticism of so-called divinely authored ethics. In God Is Not Great (2007), he pointed out that the moral teachings of many religions were not only unnecessary but often deeply flawed:
“Religion spoke its last intelligible or noble or inspiring words a long time ago. It has tried to delay every innovation, to deny every discovery, to suppress every improvement.”
Religious moral codes, often frozen in time, struggle to keep pace with evolving human understanding. Whether it’s slavery, the subjugation of women, or attitudes toward sexuality, the supposedly unchanging moral authority of religion has often stood on the wrong side of progress. If anything, moral evolution has required humans to move beyond scripture, not remain bound to it.
Empathy and Evolution
Secular ethics begins not with a commandment, but with a question: how do we reduce harm and increase human flourishing? The building blocks of morality—compassion, fairness, reciprocity—are not unique to the religious. In fact, they appear to be rooted in our biology. Primatologist Frans de Waal has observed moral precursors in apes: empathy, social cooperation, even reconciliation. Evolution, it seems, has hardwired us for pro-social behaviour because it helped our ancestors survive.
Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene (1976), controversially argued that while our genes may be ‘selfish,’ human beings have developed mechanisms—like altruism and social bonding—that allow us to override pure self-interest. Morality, in this view, is not a divine implant. It is a human achievement.
The Secular Foundations of Law
Modern legal systems are based not on divine edict, but on democratic principles, rational debate, and the consensus of populations. These systems evolve. They are criticised, improved, and rebuilt over time. Atheists who participate in civic life are not rejecting morality; they are helping construct it through collective reasoning and shared values.
As philosopher Peter Singer argues, ethical reasoning requires us to take “the point of view of the universe” — to evaluate consequences broadly and impartially, not through the narrow lens of tribal or religious allegiance. Singer’s utilitarianism may not be universally accepted, but it exemplifies a secular approach to serious moral thinking.
Moral Responsibility Without Excuses
Atheism does not offer the comfort of absolution. There is no god to forgive sins, no afterlife to right the scales. But this also means that the atheist must take full responsibility for their actions, here and now. There are no divine loopholes. Only accountability.
As Sam Harris writes in The Moral Landscape (2010):
“Questions about values—about meaning, morality, and life’s larger purpose—are really questions about the well-being of conscious creatures.”
It is precisely because atheists don’t rely on an external authority that they must think more carefully, more personally, about how to live. This is not a moral void—it is a moral discipline.
Conclusion: A Rational, Compassionate Ethics
The morality of an atheist is not written in stone. It is not dictated by fear or blind faith. It is constructed through reason, tested through dialogue, and lived through choice. Far from being unmoored, it is a morality built on human solidarity, intellectual honesty, and the hard work of ethical reflection.
To dismiss atheism as morally bankrupt is to ignore the richness of secular ethical traditions—from Epicurus to Mill, from Camus to Hitchens. These thinkers did not abandon morality. They reclaimed it from superstition, and in doing so, made it more human.
References
- Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great, 2007
- Frans de Waal, The Age of Empathy, 2009
- Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976
- Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 1979
- Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape, 2010