Do atheists really not believe because they don't want to be held accountable for their actions?

All you need to do is look at cultures virtually untouched by Christianity. China makes a good example. It's hardly a state of sodom and gomorrah is it? They're all too damn well behaved! (probably because their government is bloody scary)

Also how about the cultures of Meso America before the arrival of Columbus who had formed entirely without old world contact. They were organised by laws which included punishments for theft, murder, cheating, and also contained civil contracts like property rights and marriage.

How could they have had such things if they had never heard of the bible, and therefore according to fundamentalist Christians, could have no knowledge of right and wrong? Surely they ought to have existed in perpetual evil anarchy?

What it demonstrates is that morality is an innate human instinct, and that cooperation is preferable to selfishness. Obviously not everyone is a decent person because self-interest has replaced their drive to cooperate, but generally speaking all civilisations have organised themselves along legal lines with civil responsibilities.

One of the good things about religion is that it offers people a code of moral conduct. However, religion as a source of scientific fact has been so disproven its silly to even argue the point: the world is NOT 6000 years old, it was NOT created in 6 days, etc. People who reject religion as a source of scientific fact can still have perfectly fine, rational, sane morality. If you look at the history of religion with its burning at the stake of people accused of witchcraft, of killing Jews during the Dark Ages because of the Black Plague (Jews bathed, Christians thought bathing was a sin so Jews had a noticeably lower incidence of Plague, the Church said the Jews were poisoning the wells), and lots of other superstitious nonsense and cruelty, religion does not have an unblemished claim on moral conduct. Let alone all the news stories about priests and pastors abusing little boys and girls. These people all claim to be good Christians, they all claim the right to judge other peoples' morality on topics from gay marriage to drinking to abortion, yet their own skirts are far from clean.

As you point out, the argument makes no sense. We might as well ask if Christians don't want to be Jews because they don't want to be held accountable for breaking Levitican Law.

If anything, the fact that I don't believe in a deity shows that I DO accept accountability for my actions. As an atheist, I can't rationalize a horrible act by claiming "Oh I'm just doing God's will", or blaming some entity like Satan for bad things in my life, etc.

atheist are just like anyother group they have a common se of belifs therefor they are look at as the religous party of unoffiliated .goverment is just a structre and order.religon such as christianity is a foundation people follow for structure and in their lives foundation.religon is just a widespread of morals.theirs nothing wrong with atheist,they just see things in a naturalist light.the truth is no ones right an no ones wrong.whos to say that god exist? heaven exist?whos to say that it dosent. only time can tell.me being a strong atheist i belive in the power of the mind.and id much rather spend my life worrying about life and worry about the afterlife when im dead.and just a thought what makes christianity so real?there are many other religons out there whos to say hinduism and exct do not exist ?

no. If you require god to be accountable to your actions it shows you are a week minded human.

If you do the wrong thing you will be held accountable during your life. And if you are not. Life is unfair, move on. Only vengeful people would want someone suffering for eternity for potentially one or 2 mistakes (Christians and heaven for example. goes against the forgive bit they teach these days )

IF they say they are atheists because they do not want to go to hell then clearly they believe in hell and therefore probably heaven and a deity therefor they are not atheists

We do not believe that we are held accountable in terms of some supreme judgement.

But you're right, we know full well that we're held accountable by society.

On the issue of only being Christian out of fear of Hell, that cannot possibly be true. One cannot have a fear of Hell unless one is already religious, for one would not believe in it if one was not.

The only references I make to Christians fearing Hell is when some say that, if they didn't have God to judge them after death, they'd go around killing, raping, etc because they wouldn't have to worry about judgement. I say that to do good out of fear of punishment (Hell) or greed for reward (Heaven) is not true good, it is cowardice and avarice.

However, I doubt that people who say this actually mean it. Just because one is not religious does not mean that one will do evil.

As an atheist I do not believe in Christianity because it looks suspiciously implausible like all the other "ghost stories" Man tells.

That's what it is. Your fellow lie to you. The next time they make that claim, ask them why their are so many Christians in prison but hardly any intellectual atheists.

Atheists have morals, too. It's just like this. Christianity is too strict about things that make no sense. Like sex. Animals have sex all the time. Do they get married? No. Granted, some do mate for life. And marrying a divorced woman/man or getting married again after a divorce is adultery? That's just STUPID. Plus, it's hard to believe in something you can't see. And most importantly, they know how to think for themselves.

They will not admit it. It's like having a Constitution that you stand behind 100% and no wavering. And that does not make them Atheist nor is it a Cult as some tend to refer it to. It is simply a word to represent some one who does not accept theologies of Religion or Science.

God is merciful, and he will judge a lot by the intentions of our hearts. So, if I am correct, atheists will be judged by what they did in life, not necessarily by belief.

In my opinion, some atheists may have had a falling out with church, which is what made them lose faith. This is why we must be examples.