Lobstrosity

What exactly is the distinction? As far as I can tell these two words are exact synonyms. If somone is moral they are ethical. If someone has a set of ethical beliefs, they have a set of moral beliefs. Why argue over the semantics? I know that pious religious types have soiled the word "morality," but it doesn't mean we need to fear it and use synonyms instead.

eth·ic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (thk)
n.

1.
a. A set of principles of right conduct.
b. A theory or a system of moral values: “An ethic of service is at war with a craving for gain” (Gregg Easterbrook).
2. ethics (used with a sing. verb) The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy.

Alonzo Fyfe

The crux of the matter is that, those who argue that atheists are to be condemned for "lacking morals" is a malicious slander of the same sort that "all Jews are a selfish and money-hungry" and "All Muslims are terrorists."

Yet, unlike these two examples, the atheist slander still has significant purchase in this country. And, as a result of this slander, atheists still face individual persecution and other advantages, even on the national level -- where "returning morality to our schools" is used as a catch phrase for putting up religious slogans and demanding that students pray and pay similar homage to the Christian God.

Those who would employ this malicious slander against atheists thereby prove that it is they, not the people they condemn, who are truly suffering from some deficiency of moral character -- and thereby demonstrate the moral weakness of their religion, not its strength.

Lobstrosity

Well said.

meritocrat

Religious people must be really weak if they need a Bible to tell them what is right and what is wrong.

As an agnostic, I view morality in terms of freedom lost. For example, I would avoid undertaking actions that deny others' of freedom.