Many Christians (and those of other religions?) seem to believe that if one is an atheist (or even an agnostic?) that one lacks a moral barometer: “Without belief in God”, they say, “why would the atheist be motivated to live a moral upstanding life?” This confuses me. Surely, if their creator-god exists and has given humans free will to make the choice whether or not to join the flock, there is an inbuilt moral understanding of right and wrong so that the making of such a choice has meaning. Furthermore, just because the atheist(/agnostic) hasn’t made one choice to do what is “right” by joining the flock, they still have that inbuilt morality which means they have motivation to make the “right” choices in other situations. Am I barking up the wrong tree here or is this common belief about atheists/agnostics lacking a moral barometer somewhat contradictory?