Religious people have a terrible argument against atheists: that atheists can’t or don’t have a “moral code.” This is obviously false, but atheists always have a very interesting and equally terrible response to this argument.

“If you need religion to be a good person, then you’re not actually a good person!”

This has never made sense to me, because I’ve been told my whole life that actions speak louder than words. In my view, it doesn’t really matter why a person does good, only that they do good. In this sense, intentions don’t matter.

That brings me to the second point: Why do atheists care so much about the intentions of moral actions? If you believe there is no God, then obviously belief in one must come from some preconceived biases. Really, how is that any different from “basic moral ethics” or whatever?

I think both sides suck in this scenario.