Guest Blog from Kenny Wyland:
Many thanks to Godless Blogger for allowing me to write a few guest blog entries this week. I’m a little long-winded, but I hope I can live up to the high standards. 
Godless Blogger is currently running a campaign to set up a billboard with a positive atheist message in Atlanta, so I thought it would be good to discuss what kinds of things we value.
There is a popular misconception that atheists have no morals, no ethics and no values. This is not true. Atheists just tend to build their ethical structures based on personal experience and personal choice (whether rational or irrational) instead of building their ethical/moral structures on supposed values written in a book thousands of years ago. I believe the best ethical structures are built upon rational thought. A buddy of mine, Derek James, wrote a few blog entries a couple of years ago in an attempt to codify his secular values (that blog isn’t actively maintained anymore) and I like many of the ideas he put forward. I intend to talk, in my own way, about the ideas he presents over the next couple of days. He advocates for a secular value system based on: Truth, Freedom and Structure, but I would also add Fairness to that mix because it is of great importance to me.
I do not include Happiness as one of my values because Happiness can too often trump Truth, Honesty and Fairness. I AM HAPPY, but I consider it a result of leading an ethical and productive life and not a goal in itself. A person can trick themselves into being happy by denying the reality of their situation, but I don’t consider that a healthy way to live. I don’t find value in dishonest communication whether it comes from others or it comes from my own brain.
Valuing truth doesn’t mean that you always need to be right, though. Many scientific theories have been shown to be wrong after experimentation. It means that we do our best to determine what is real and what is truthful. We don’t know if Superstring Theory is true, but it seems to have a certain mathematical consistency so we pursue a course of experimentation to determine its truthfulness. In the end, we may find the theory to be wrong, but that’s fine. It’s important to question and critically examine our ideas.
The pursuit of truth is just as important as day to day truth and honesty. Those “little white lies” that people tell to family or co-workers, etc. seem so harmless, right? We only have this “little white lies” phrase to make ourselves feel better though. It helps us believe that it’s no big deal. I believe, however, that if we do not have honest communication with ourselves and others then there is just no point to it all. It is often more difficult to be honest, especially when a lie makes things more convenient but if a principle is abandoned when things are difficult then it isn’t much of a princple, is it?
An excellent quote from Derek’s blog about truth:
A rule of thumb is to consider the motivation of a lie, even a small one. If it is to pursue wealth, power, or pleasure as an end, rather than a core value, then it is unworthy to be uttered. If it is to spare the feelings of a friend, then the truth is preferable. Deceit often has a way of catching up to the deceiver anyway. The more honest you are, and the more your honesty bears out to those around you, the more reliable and trusted you will become, and you’ll be on the path to lead the good life.
Whether they are religious or secular, what values do you consider important?
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