"How should we define our morals?"

Not using the Bible...

Major Characters of the Bible

Gosh this is going to be long. Not listed in any particular order. And I ain't gonna list them all. If the number of verses is great, I shall not list the text here. For example, Genesis 16, the whole chapter, is listed without the verses.

God — This one is simple. Just read all the verses in my God's Nastiest Turd treatise.

Adam — The ultimate in incest. He screwed his own clone. Genesis 2:21-22: Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Actually that would be awesome for some of you Christians, screw yourself...

Noah — Genesis 9:21: He drank of the wine and got drunk. And the first thing Noah does is grow a vineyard so he can make wine and get stinking drunk. Genesis 9:25: “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.” Just because he saw his father naked? It was Noah's fault. He should not have gotten stinking drunk, strip naked, and pass out.

Sarah (Sarai) — Genesis 16: She convinces Abram to commit adultery so as to make a child. Hmm... And Christians have been committing adultery ever since. Current data shows 1 in 3 Christian marriages fail due to infidelity. And overall, almost 60% of Christian marriages fail compared to only about 20% of atheist marriages. Hmm...

Abraham (Abram) — Genesis 22:9-10: They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son. WTF? A schizophrenic asshole listens to the voices in his head and is willing to eviscerate his own son and burn him. It matters not that another voice in his head slapped him to wake him up. And he was perfectly willing to commit adultery at his wife's behest. The original swingers couple. It would not surprise me if they had a threesome with Hagar... Genesis 25:6: ...sons of Abraham’s concubines. Boy Abraham was really into screwing all the women he had working for him. Talk about infidelity.

Lot — Genesis 19:6-8: Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself. He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.” WTFGDH? I had two virgin daughters. Identical twin virgin daughters. Do you honestly think I would do as Lot said in the bold text above? HELL NO! I would have fought and killed as many of those men until I was either killed, or I had killed them all. Now that is atheist morals versus those damned Christian morals. I would have been willing to fight to mine own death, even knowing with my death my daughters were doomed. However, unlike Christians, I would have at least died trying to defend them. Lot was perhaps the sorriest piece of human filth to even think of offering his virgin daughters. And I would killed him for just saying that.

Lot's Daughters — What can be said when their own father was willing to allow them to be gang raped? Gensis 19:31-38: The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34 It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” 35 They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. 36 Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day. Wow. Wow. Again, WTFGDH? Yes, they were the one's who got him drunk, but that is still NO EXCUSE. A reson, yes, but NO EXCUSE. Then again, Lot lost his wife and probably figured, "What the hell."

Er — Genesis 38:7: Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in Yahweh’s sight. So Yahweh killed him. Damn! So damned wicked they could not even put it into the Bible...

Onan — Genesis 38:9: Onan knew that the offspring wouldn’t be his; and when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. The ultimate floor spooger. Yuck!

Judah — Genesis 38:13-16: Tamar was told, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. Another adulterer. Ignorance is no excuse.

Jacob — Genesis 25:30-33: Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with some of that red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.* Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” Sorry lousy piece of human filth to force a brother to give up his birthright just for a meal?

Rebekah & Jacob — Genesis 27:5-30 Deception and theft. Two of the greatest hang-ups for Christians: Lying and Stealing.

Moses — By obeying his schizophrenic voices in his head, Moses became one of the most immoral monsters of the human species. Wished I had some of that weed he smoked before going up the mountain.

Joshua — Read the entire book of Joshua. Nothing but ethnic genocidal cleansing after ethnic genocidal cleansing. Death, murder, rape, torture, terrorism, amongst just a few of the atrocities the Hebrews committed under the Divine Command Theory. Joshua 31:17-18: Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. Yeah! Kill them all. But keep the virgins for us to rape! You know how us Christians just love raping and molesting children. More definitive Godly morality.

Elisha — 2nd Kings 2:23-24: He [Elisha] went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!” He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in Yahweh’s name. Then two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths. This one is definitely a WFGDH?! Little children. Little children, which means no older than 10 years, mocks a man for having a bald head. For a bald head! He then curses those little children and your God, your maniacally psychopathic God, sends two female bears to tear 42 of those little children apart. Forty-two little children! Now I ask you, does mocking someone for having a bald head deserve the death penalty? At any age? What kind of morality is this? Oh, I forget, even though your God is a sadistic filicidal psychopath, your God is ultimately good. If you can define this as morally good, then what is left to call evil?

Jesus — Just read all the verses in my God's Nastiest Turd treatise. Jesus even freely admits he is exactly like that totalitarian megalomanical psychotic sociopath you Christians call "God."

If any say the biblical "god" and Jesus are moral, I shall just laugh in your face and say, "You have never really read the Bible."

I have grown weary of this. As Old Man said, "Reading the Bible turns my stomach." And further, it makes me so nauseated I have to take Ondansetron to keep from vomitting. 'Nuff said.

rmfr

Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you’re told. Religion, however, is doing what you’re told regardless of what is right. Some religious dogma might instruct you to do the right thing, but the things they tell you to do already are and have already been done without religion. Also, if you only do good deeds through fear of punishment and promise of some moral dessert and believe that you’d be out raping and killing if it weren’t for fear of what sky daddy would think, then what does that say about how much of a person you are?

Every human being on earth needs a code of morals (be it religious or philosophical) In order to live a rational, productive, and happy life. For religious people, those who live without their god are considered heathens and doomed to live unhappy, worthless lives before being sent to hell for eternal damnation. Since having my own religious crisis, I have found that Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, to be most compatible with how I want to live my life.

The OP states what we refer to as "The Golden Rule" I'm not sure why you find it impossible to do, but I can try to illustrate how I deal with it when I fall short.

"The Golden Rule" I try my best to lead my life this way. Rather than a rule, I look at it as more of a guideline. With this POV, it applies less social pressure than rules in my opinion and furthermore, it allows room for me to be as honest as I can with other people. I think this is important because sometimes, biting your tongue and being nice is not going to solve all of your problems.

Based on a sample size of let's say... mostly everyone I come in contact with, It works. My interaction with co-workers, neighbors, religious people and even strangers is warmer and more fulfilling. Now don't get me wrong, this is not always the case. I sometimes get mad and cuss at my fellow drivers for bad road etiquette. No one is perfect, but you shouldn't discount the great interactions you have with others while trying to live as "The Golden Rule" would have you.

All in all, the golden rule serves as a model for the type of person I want to be, rather than a rule I should beat myself up for whenever I occasionally fall short of it's stipulations.

Hope this helps someone.

Now you just don't get that sort of shit out of new age meme makers. Sterling work Old Man.