Atheist Ethical Law Makers

The "Good Without God" concept has taken a body blow. The American Atheist organization is instituting a non-relativistic law of behavior for Atheists who don't seem to know how to behave. It seems that Free Thinkers are also pretty free with their behaviors, especially toward the opposite sex. Here is an article from the Examiner on Free Wheeling Free Thinkers:

American Atheists is instituting a Code of Conduct after recent complaints of harassment at various events including inappropriate and aggressive behavior, particularly against women. President of American Atheists David Silverman had the following to say in reference to the code.

“The Code of Conduct will allow all conference attendees to know that American Atheists' events are safe, fun and informative. We want people to enjoy themselves but know there will be consequences for harmful behaviors.

Anyone attending events are asked to comply with the rules which include no touching without asking, no racist, homophobic or other stereotypical speech.

Todd Stiefel of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation described the situation by saying:

“There are stories of people being relentlessly propositioned, groped under tables, threatened with rape, stealthily photographed for voyeuristic pornography, and many other transgressions. Even if any of the specific cases were unintentional, misconstrued, or dubious, the fact that so many of them are coming to light should concern all of us.

The source of the harassment is unknown as to whether skeptics are instigating it or visitors but regardless they are letting people know it will not be tolerated. Much of the harassment according to Stiefel is from men harassing women but he cautions men can be on the receiving end to as he was at one time.

The AA includes "consequences" for infractions, apparently. But a quick visit to their website doesn't lead directly to any indication of a "Code of Conduct", much less any consequences for misconduct. What is easily found, however, is a long article on ethics which concludes thus:

"The task of moral education, then, is not to inculcate by rote great lists of do's and don'ts, but rather to help people to predict the consequences of actions being considered. What are the long-term as well as immediate rewards and draw-backs of the acts? Will an act increase or decrease one's chances of experiencing the hedonic triad of love, beauty, and creativity?"

What? No do's and don'ts, just calculating the potential success of hedonic reward? Why that's exactly what the boys were after in their own immature and socially retarded fashions: hedonic reward. Remember, there's no good or bad, there's only success and failure: it's all right there in the textbooks on evolution. So Free Thinkers who are Thinking Freely are now "bad" for some unknown ethical determination which is not part of Free Thought or Atheism.

As for Consequences, what is AA going to provide as punishment? Revoking the incorrigible's right to purchase "A" tee shirts at the AA web-store? Short of reporting infractions to the police (they apparently did not, just like the Catholic Church), AA has no consequences to dole out. It is perfectly possible to be an Atheist without AA.

The final paragraph of the AA article on Ethics is this:

"Thus it happens, when the Atheist approaches the problem of finding natural grounds for human morals and establishing a nonsuperstitious basis for behavior, that it appears as though nature has already solved the problem to a great extent. Indeed, it appears as though the problem of establishing a natural, humanistic basis for ethical behavior is not much of a problem at all. It is in our natures to desire love, to seek beauty, and to thrill at the act of creation. The labyrinthine complexity we see when we examine traditional moral codes does not arise of necessity: it is largely the result of vain attempts to accommodate human needs and nature to the whimsical totems and taboos of the demons and deities who emerged with us from our cave-dwellings at the end of the Paleolithic Era - and have haunted our houses ever since."

It appears that nature alone doesn't work for Atheists these days; apparently they need rules in order to know how to behave. So AA has stepped up with its list of taboos. And note the totem the AA home page:

I like that it comes pre-cracked. I'm thinking their demons did that.

ADDENDUM:

After a little more poking around I found the AA rules (the rules are just for their conferences apparently, so maybe they don't apply at any other time). And they do have consequences: they might kick the Free Wheeling Free Thinkers, and without a refund.

Good. Ethics should have consequences, it seems to me.