No, "moral atheists" are not "just as virtuous"

I'm tired and a little headachy, so I don't really want to blog much more, but I don't want this one to go by. I just heard someone reference the argument that some atheists make that if they are moral, then their results are "just as good" if not better than people who "behave" "just because they 'fear hell.'" No, that is not correct; "moral atheists" are not "as good" as people who believe in hell for one simple reason. First of all, people who fear hell also, if they believe in hell, obviously believe in God and heaven. People who believe in God have access, whether they use it or not, to what I call an "inspired morality." In other words, they believe that there is a goodness that cannot be easily understood by humans, but which can be accessed and strived toward. If one does not believe in God, one can only envision the factual day to day goodness that one observes by being a secular moralist as being "as good as it gets." People who believe in God believe there is a greater goodness possible to humans than they might be able to picture in the moment of their day to day, and thus have the potential to stretch to a greater goodness during life than do moral atheists, who are confined by mundane examples of morality and goodness.

Here is an art analogy.

Many people admire Vermeer because of his inspired use of lighting in his paintings. I've seen some of his paintings in person and they are extraordinary. The more one looks at his paintings, the more one wonders how he could get the lighting just so right and so inspiring. So let us use the talent of Vermeer in painting his lighting and illumination as being an analogy of a painter who believes in God.

So a painter comes along and does not believe in God, so he paints with equal talent of color and brushstroke as Vermeer, and he copies each painting, but does not include the technique approach to lighting that Vermeer uses. In other words, the painter paints the same scenes, but uses the standard approach to illumination that every other painter uses. He then says that his painting is as good as Vermeer's.

The painting may be just as good, and it may sell for the same amount of money, or be displayed in the same art galleries with distinction. However, without the inspiration, the non God believing painter does not create a legend that inspires and wonders, uplifting the observer, through the ages, as Vermeer has done. That is the difference between a "moral atheist" and a moral believer in God. The moral believer in God is open to the mystery and optimism that something even better exists, both after life and, in extraordinary circumstances, within daily mundane life itself. The classic example is that it was believers who ultimately denounced and overthrew slavery, something that could not even be imagined by a "moral atheist," since entire empire and country economies relied on slavery. No one could envision life without slavery, except through God's inspiration to imagine the unimaginably good.

That's why atheists annoy me but mostly I view them as people who are like color blind people, to use an analogy, that they just can't see some wavelengths of color, but in this case are wavelengths of inspiration potential. Sure, many religious people don't either, but if a religious person believes in God, they would be shocked if, for example, God spoke to them, but they would not be blind to its happening, since belief in God broadens the "wavelengths" of inspiration that one could potentially receive. When believers pray, that is what they are doing, they are believing that they are connecting with something that is good beyond their imagining.

So fine, I say, be happy that you, the "moral atheist" can paint a Vermeer but without his lighting. That's cool. But it is not intellectually correct to say that you are "as good" a painter as Vermeer, if you do not recognize or be able to perform his hallmark legendary technique of lighting.

(Do a Google image search for "Milkmaid" and "Vermeer" and feast your eyes on a truly luminous example of great art.)