Are atheists good people?
Discuss religious, spiritual, and theological issues concerning Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or any other religion.
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Re: Are atheists good people?And why is that? :P(Original post by JollyGreenAtheist)
Some are, some aren't.
On the whole, I feel that religion teaches people not to be dicks.
On the whole, atheists already know not to be dicks, and know why not to be dicks to boot. -
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Re: Are atheists good people?Atheists do good things without expecting to get into 'heaven'.
Christian people do good things because 'God' told them to do that.
In my opinion Atheists have better morals as what they do is for themselves and the human race, not for a chance at getting into heaven. -
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Re: Are atheists good people?Regurgitating what's already been said - atheists do not believe in the God or Gods of theists, and do not follow the teachings laid out by the book/books of each respective religion. The more ignorant theists will think that because atheists do not have a written moral code to follow and live their life by, they have a lower morality.
My opinion is that atheists have similar moral values to religious folk, but atheists follow them out of their love for the world and those around them. Theists follow them because it's a part of their religion, but is probably also because they're genuinely good people. -
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Re: Are atheists good people?Was the man an Arab, per chance?(Original post by PierceBrosnan)
I clearly don't have any moral high ground just last week I shot a man because the sun was in my eyes.
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Re: Are atheists good people?I, as an atheist, am a fairly morally questionable person.
However, I know plenty of atheists who are genuinely wonderful people, and an equal number of terrible awful Christians.
I really don't think a person's beliefs have anything to do with their moral code of ethics at all. I suppose some religions tend to push people into being "better" than others but if it's not how they would act otherwise are they any better than anyone else? -
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Re: Are atheists good people?Not believing in a Creator can actually do severe harm to this planet. For instance, lately, the number of people dying from cancer has increased with the in the increase in number of people becoming atheists.
Because even though, atheists might be good people but by not believing in a God they tend to play with God's creations and doing things such as "Genetically modifying" the food that we eat, and also believing that by doing conventional harvesting, they can improve the human health without the need of consuming natural and organic.
I know they've probably done it with a good intention, but their failures in this aspect has killed more humans and many living beings along the way rather than saving and improving their lives.Last edited by ~Sanctified; 10-02-2012 at 04:41. -
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Re: Are atheists good people?Hmm you are getting a bit dodgy here. I agree that in many instances humans have perhaps gone too far in trying to improve upon nature but where do you draw the line? where does it mention gmos in the bible? are life support machines bad? how much technology is too much? What if we believe in a creator that put us on the earth to be scientific and advance technologically?(Original post by ~Sanctified)
Not believing in a Creator can actually do severe harm to this planet. For instance, lately, the number of people dying from cancer has increased with the in the increase in number of people becoming atheists.
Because even though, atheists might be good people but by not believing in a God they tend to play with God's creations and doing things such as "Genetically modifying" the food that we eat, and also believing that by doing conventional harvesting, they can improve the human health and exceeding the the need of consumption of natural and organic.
I know they've probably done it with a good intention, but their failures in this aspect has killed more humans and many living beings along the way rather than saving and improving their lives.
the biblical god is a pretty twisted individual, i would say he would probably have wiped us off the face of the earth by now because of the actions of a few humans as he did before which would be far more devastating than what you are mentioning. -
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Re: Are atheists good people?I don't know about you, but I live in the EU where we do not eat genetically modified food. Genetically modified food is a very promising technology, but there are a lot of open questions about it.(Original post by ~Sanctified)
Not believing in a Creator can actually do severe harm to this planet. For instance, lately, the number of people dying from cancer has increased with the in the increase in number of people becoming atheists.
Because even though, atheists might be good people but by not believing in a God they tend to play with God's creations and doing things such as "Genetically modifying" the food that we eat, and also believing that by doing conventional harvesting, they can improve the human health without the need of consuming natural and organic.
I know they've probably done it with a good intention, but their failures in this aspect has killed more humans and many living beings along the way rather than saving and improving their lives.
I also know that, for example, condoms do not cause AIDS even though catholic priests in Africa have been documented telling people exactly that. Dogma kills plenty of people too. -
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Re: Are atheists good people?Of course, atheists can be good or bad people, just like believers.
Some have the belief that people need the celestial carrot-and-stick of Heaven for being good and Hell for being bad in order to keep them in line. The philosopher Immanuel Kant argued on similar lines. The idea is that atheists who lack such a belief are more likely to be bad. This is sadly quite common in terms of prejudice against atheists, particularly in the States. It is also contradicted by hard empirical evidence such as prison statistics.
Richard Dawkins criticised the above belief by saying it is very telling, and replying to an evangelist who quoted exactly that belief: "So, are you saying the only reason you don't kill and rape is because you're scared of God?"
One other response is that Christians are just as likely to use their belief in God's forgiveness and mercy to justify doing bad now, provided they suck up to their deity later and say sorry.
St Augustine of Hippo famously admitted praying when he was young: "Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet!"Last edited by Mequa; 10-02-2012 at 05:10.
