I know mosts Athiests are good people just like any other group there are good and bad anywhere.
But my question is if there is no God than why behave?
You can rob a bank and if you get away with it you get away with it so why do you not rob the bank?
So you would do bad if god didn't exist? That's horrible and shows just how immoral you truly are.
And it's "atheists" not "Athiests".
its called the law :)
Besides morality is not a religious monopoly, ethics and laws existed long before Moses. After all we are social animals with complex societies, if we didn't have an advanced sense of morality society wouldn't work.
Ask yourself, if the only thing holding back from murder is fear of God. The answer, I hope would be no, you know its wrong without a priest to tell you.
What religion did was codify laws, but once it does that it rarely moves with the times, so Islam and Christianity now have weirdly out sync notions of sin and thats why theocracies always seem medieval.
A lack of belief in religion doesn't equal a lack of morals. Truth is, you won't get away with robbing a bank, nor will you live a happy life if you punch everyone you meet in the gut. There are reasons other than God for doing a good thing.
well i get what you are saying but it doesnt really matter does it?... if they don't change, no matter how good they are when they die they are going to burn. and that's all.
I am a "believer" as you people would call it and all i can say is then the world would be hell it would be so bad that you would not be able to find the good in people and no that you can have a good life even though its hard at the time. And also if you are wondering why God seems so mad and all this its because 1. Anger is an emotion and ever one can be angry and 2. the reason there is terrorists and stuff and bad things is so that God knows truly how much you love him and can trust him. So why dont you take that in before you go bashing God. Sorry just had to get that out and uh good question.
Because I feel good when I do good stuff.
For the same reason hyenas can't simply start eating the lion's hunt. There's always someone stronger keeping taps on you. And those folks can normally decide your fate: life or death. In Reason We Trust? | Secular Student Alliance: Atheists ::
It's about doing good for its own sake, because it is, in itself, the right thing to do.” Wier has a different view. “[Christians] treat people well because
http://www.secularstudents.org/node/2091HOME |
NAS at 85% atheists — Let's bump it up to 100% | Uncommon Descent::
“It's only 99.9% of atheists that give such a bad reputation to the rest. a majority will do the right thing absent the belief in a higher authority.
http://www.uncommondescent.com/religion/nas-at-85-atheists-lets-bump-it-up-to-100/HOME |
Being an atheist doesn't mean a person is unable to make moral decisions, is unable to tell right from wrong, or isn't compelled to do the right thing out of a sense of morality.
Do you think that all bank robbers are atheists?
All wife beaters, all cheaters, all murderers?
How many people do you think actually consider the prospect of Hell before they make a decision to commit an immoral act?
Can a person be moral without being commanded by God? Does God have reasons for demanding that we be moral? If so, aren't those reasons good enough to stand on their own without considering their source? Empathy, compassion, conscience, kindness -- aren't these all things that we bring about in ourselves by cultivating them in others? Enjoyment and love of life, meaning and purpose ... these are things that are made even more precious by the concept that life is finite and brief, and that we must make the most of our presence on the earth while we have a chance.
that's one of the main things that scare me about Christians is what lurks under their godly constraints . Not much depth there if they only do things because of fear of hell or rewards of heaven . At least Moral Atheists have a profound understanding and good reason for their way of life ...
Oh, I don't know. It's wrong to steal money, it's wrong to deprive people of their earnings, it's a serious bummer to go to jail.
The atheist who would be a Christian - Article Comments - View ::
10 posts - 10 authorsI do this not because of god, but because of good. Not because of the belief in an afterlife, but because of I believe in the right thing to do.
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?p=905298HOME |
Atheist parenting::
We very strongly know that human beings can be good and do the right thing without superstition." The idea that atheists aren't moral people because they
http://www.lornacollier.com/Atheistparenting.htmlHOME |
If I go to jail, I met have to share a cell with a priest.
b/c its not in our nature. .. everyone has a conscience .. and most of us have values and morals ..
I dont need the bible to tell me the difference between right and wrong ... I naturally care for people..
a) They are too chicken.
b) They secretly believe in God.
Because it is wrong to take something that doesn't belong to you. It's part of treat others how you would like to be treated - I'd certainly not like someone stealing from me so I certainly won't steal from them.
i don't have a reliable getaway car! seriously, do you have to be afraid of angering a deity to be "good"? that's sad.
We do the right thing because it is the right thing. We do not require coercion.
Atheists do the right thing because they live in societies whose laws and customs derive from the teachings of the world's universal educators. The ethical and moral teachings of the world's universal educators have so permeated our cultures and seem so ubiquitous that we forget from whom they came and credit ourselves for their origin. The universal educators have brought individual and social laws, ordinances, and admonitions as the underpinnings of happiness, prosperity, healing, and an ever-advancing civilization. And, incidentally, the universal educators one and all proclaim that their words come from a source higher than themselves.
Stupid Q. Not saying I'm one of them but...if I robbed a bank....I'd go to jail...and that wouldn't be very fun....! Why behave? So people like you, and you have a pleasent time on earth. If Aths, see it as there is no after life, then they've got to make it the best on earth
I am an atheist. I do not need any god to tell me what is right and what is wrong, nor how to behave.
My parents and teachers have taught me what is right and what is wrong. No gods required.
Just because one doesn't believe in God, doesn't mean that one has no sense of right and wrong.
being an athiest doesnt mean that just because they dont believe in god doesnt mean they dont have morals in anything.. no one can prove there to be a god, heaven, or hell... be a good person because you can be not because you feel you are going to be judged... and if you do believe in a god do not be judgemental toward thoughs who dont believe because "god" will frown upon that wont he?? and you'll end up burning....
Atheists may not believe in God but they sure believe in the law.
People don't want to believe because if they do they have to obey the word of God,so they want to be bad to the end and then try to believe,but most are to late,in the end atheists cry out to God if they have the time be for death.
I don't rob the bank, because what if the bank teller was God in disguise? Ha ha.
The question is self-defeating: If you admit you would rob and rape in the absence of God, you reveal yourself to be an immoral person; if you would do the right thing even with no God, you undermine your premise that God is necessary for morality.
In any case, we can arrive at morality through reason, without God. Now, we may not have a definite, perfect understanding of what is or is not moral, but we can reason that things like murder or rape are obviously not moral.
People have come up with all kinds of ways to determine morality. For example, John Stuart Mill was a believer in utilitarianism, which states that the best action is the one which provides the greatest happiness to the most people. Then there is Immanuel Kant's idea of the categorical imperative, which is as follows: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."
Granted, people have debated the merits of utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and other systems of ethics for years, but it goes to show two things:
1) Morality is possible without God.
2) No one has a perfect, definite understanding of morality.
As for what I believe in? I believe that you should not do to others what you don't want them to do to you. If you steal or lie, I believe that is tacit acknowledgment that you don't mind being stolen from or lied to. So, that is why I try to live a good, moral life.
doing good and bad depends on two things: mind set gained genetically and the way how he/ she is brougt up
God is a princilple or the highest ideal or ideal personified to make the social being nitted together in the family,society,country,nation, and the world . for the humanity to survive with the laws of nature because the the mind set is different in each individual and make difficulty in adjestments to be a social being successfully
Yeah go read a psychology book, the fact that you are so grossly uninformed of the world around you is the reason you attribute everything to a god, it's like a freaking thought mechanism for you guys, "I don't know, therefore god did it."
because we take responsibility for our actions, whether good or bad. We know that we think for ourselves. its that simple. We also understand energy. Religion is used as a crutch for most, and we choose not to take the delusional path
So, If there was no god, you would be robbing banks? Really? You are that bad of a person?
Why does Japan have a lower crime rate than the United States? They don't believe in Hell or Heaven.
hmmmm, must be something to do with morality, and the way they were brought up ;)
Why don't you build an atomic bomb and blow up everyone else? (If you wouldn't get punished for it of course)
A. Not everyone would want that. I would, but not everyone would.
B. You don't even know what building a bomb entails.
C. You don't know how to execute the opperation
I believe god will punish you for asking this question.
We don't know how people would act if society had never had a code or something to guide us. We know that for some who have never heard of the Bible or it's words to live by, live much like what we would call primitive. They live by their set of rules and morals. Those who follow other religions follow the rules based on it. The nonbelievers who live among them take much of their lead from that set of rules.
Besides, because one does not believe in God, does not exclude them from the law.
Empathy, lack of motivation to misbehave, fear of retaliation, etc. Same reasons everyone else behaves (besides the whole end-of-life box score determining afterlife reward/punishment thing).
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Why do Athiests do the right thing? 
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