This comes down to the argument about whether it’s possible to be moral if you don’t believe in God. And evidently according to the serious Southern Christians you have to believe in a specific version of God with specific, and rigid, rules concerning behavior. As there are many Christian sects, all with differences as to what’s right and wrong, and how to interpret the Bible, it is a little difficult to justify a rigid moral position in all matters. We can all agree on general rules, but so can atheists.
So it comes down to the empirical, observable fact that atheists can be moral individuals. The problem seems to arise when you have political religions which replace actual religions with atheism as a fundamental dogma. Then you have a mob, and a mob has no morality. None whatsoever.
I think the difficulty lies in defining what a ‘belief in God’ is. I know many people who have a serious spiritual life without subscribing to either atheism or some standard religious doctrine. Such matters are never ‘either, or.’ I know many people who have a deep spiritual connection without being able to verbalize it or fit it into a specific philosophical/religious framework.
