I've been saying this for years: "I'm an atheist, but I find myself more comfortable in the company of religious people."
Atheism used to be very important to me. But then covid lockdowns occurred and I found myself opposing the oppressive regime alongside people who were, for the most part, religious.
However, I think it's perfectly possible to have an ethical backbone without a religious upbringing. I have thought about what you have been proposing here myself. I had (and have) many atheist friends who are ex-Muslims (because I am an ex-Muslim myself). This is a simple example, but it had made me wonder about the same thing: When we played pool, even if we didn't see the result of each other's shots, we could trust each other, whatever the result was. If they scored a shot and really meant that ball to be scored, even if they didn't say it out loud, I would trust them. And they would admit to not having the called ball if they failed to do so. These friends were ex-Muslims and I wondered maybe being brought up in families where these were taught as values had a part to play. But I met religious people who cheated over simplest things and I got to know many atheists without religious upbringing who were more trustworthy than people with a religious background or people who were still religious.
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