Morals

I'm going to go fairly heavy on philosophy here for a minute, but I'm basically only going to ask questions, because I don't know the answer. Sure, I could offer an answer, but I might not agree with myself a few minutes after.

I was reading something about atheism vs. theism and the subject of morals, where the author was positing that atheists get their moral compass from within, that atheists are really very moral people, and that they have to think about their morals perhaps even more than a religious person might. Now I'm not going to argue with any of that. I may be misstating this person's position, and I'm not telling you who it was or quoting it, because I don't really care about the statements themselves. But they got me to thinking.

In all the argument about whether people are moral or not, I don't think anyone thinks about why this is a problem. In other words, whether you get your morals from God or from introspection, why are you moral?

Some of religious bent might answer that one is moral because of God, and only by being moral can one attain salvation, or whatever benefit of the religion is offered. Some people act morally because of fear, or some other motivation having less to do with the desire to be moral and more to do with avoiding the consequences of immorality. Some people argue about the evolution of moral behavior from a sociological standpoint, or even a genetic standpoint. You can talk game theory, you can talk philosophy, you can talk simple human feeling.

But why don't we do bad things, even when we can get away with them, even if there are no repercussions. And I mean "no repercussions;" no guilt, no lingering unpleasantness, no nothing. Is the desire to avoid our conscience sufficient to keep us moral, and if so, how is that any different from fearing any other result of immorality? How does subjective morality play into it? Is subjective morality really morality at all?

I'd like to ask an atheist why they are moral. I don't mean that in any insulting sense, but why are people who don't believe in any higher power moral? Why do they listen to that inner compass? It's not that I expect a better or worse answer than if I were to ask a theist, it's simply that I don't know. And I'd wager that a lot of people don't know either. "I'm good because it's good to be good," is circular reasoning. If morality is moral, then being moral because of morality... yeah, you get the point.

So think about it: why are you a moral person? Not, "Are you a moral person?" but why. I'm willing to give anyone a right to their own morality for the purposes of this discussion. Why do you listen to the angel on your shoulder? Why do you follow the compass? Why do you pay attention to God? Why are you moral?