[MaxMazefield]

Moral Values!! it is a common misconception that religion is the only call for morals. It's rather a distortion of moral values to begin with. "Charity, compassion and hope" are not christian attributes nor muslim. These are HUMAN attributes, atheist or otherwise!! Religious folks make the common mistake thinking that human virtues were first introduced in society through their racist, outdated, fear mongering books and they tend to forget that human virtues are Human, not christian or muslim etc!! I am willing to take it a step further and firmly say that atheist who donate to charity, do that without egoistic expectations of going to heaven or reserving themselves a place nearer to god.Religion has hijacked human virtues claiming that their gods created them. Human Virtues were in place long before organized religion and those, just like vices,will always be there too long after religion disappears. Religious folks can be hypocrites about it if they want but they shouldn't claim that they are the only ones displaying compassion, charity and hope or that they do that without having their own egoistic agenda at work... exp: going to heaven, have their sins forgotten, be a better christian in front of god and the like.

Another point... given the fact more than a half of the human population practices one form of religion or another it is the atheists' right,NAY, duty to stand up for their rights and defend their right to be religion-free! one way to do that is to use reason against you folks and ask hard questions!

[NumberNegativeZero]

Without atheism, science wouldn't develop. Yes, we could argue that the first philosophical scientists (Socrates, Plato etc.), were theists. Science takes a hypothesis and creates a theory. Evolution is a theory, but it is supported by data that can be verified. Religious assertions aboutr the world continue to be a hypothesis on the basis that they cannot be supported empirically.

That is what atheists (such as myself) use to back our opinions. That is how we contribute to society and the problem of religion.

[diggy]

Martin Luther king was a devout Christian and he thought for himself and was one of many black people to combat racism and be at the fore front of the CRM

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-I9100

[FrigidSymphony]

(Original post by Camel)
As a born again Christian

That's where everyone should have stopped reading.

[Stevenishungover]

Normally I would be happy to sit back and let anyone have their own belief even if I find it ridiculously absurd however I tend to see this type of degrading comment from religious people all the time (even though their religion would want them to be passive and not spread hate). Why must Atheists prove themselves to Christians?

Religion doesn't necessarily mean good. Atheist doesn't necessarily mean not caring. People, whoever they are, whatever they believe in (be it God, Allah, Jesus, Science, Zeus or Jedi) can be good or evil religion or lack of religion does not dictate ones lifestyle or morals entirely. There have been terrible religious people in the world,

Hitler,
Bin Laden,
Pope Urban II

In saying that there has also been terrible Atheists in the world. If you are really wondering what Atheists have contributed to society the simple answer is SOCIETY ITSELF the world we live in, the planet we occupy with all its technology to save lives all stems from science which in religion is the devil itself.

Religion has done good, I will never doubt that but imo the good it does its far out shadowed by the amount of hate, pain and suffering it has caused. I do not doubt the people who worship said religions but I do however believe that for the most part religion is pure evil and only causes trouble. Then again I am at war with my own morals of that everyone should be allowed to believe in what they want and do what the want but with the other part of me thinking that it is just evil and is responsible for most of the worlds problems,


Also as a side note study s have actually shown that atheist's are the most generous with regards to donations to charity/giving time to help and the most knowledgeable towards religions than any other group (whereas religious people most of the time honestly didn't know about their own religion they just blindly follow while at the same time being subsequently completely ignorant to other peoples beliefs & regions)

ps,

I am a caring and helpful person, not because I am trying to "buy" my way into salvation, but because its the right thing. I am a good person, I am a Atheist.

Rant over, Come at me bro.

[E.Blackadder]

atheism doesn't contribute anything. it is a response to a claim. it is like asking what does being an a-alienist contribute to society?

a better question is to ask, what does religion take away from society?

[Aoide]

Even if atheism doesn't contribute that doesn't devalue it as a view. Whether something is beneficial has no impact on whether something is true or false. You don't judge whether something is true because of it's effects but rather on the proof behind it. Even if atheism had detrimental effects I would still believe it because I base my views on evidene alone- I may not be happy about the situation but letting my emotions cloud my judgement is childish. Believing something purely because it suits you is self denial.

It doesn't make sense to discuss atheism in this way since unlike other religious views there are no rules associated with atheism. Aside from not believing in god atheists have no common views. When arguing Atheism Vs Theism you can only argue from the perspective of evidence and logic because that is all atheism is focused on. Atheism doesn't oppose your morals or lifestyle choices only the idea that god exists.

[aljolson]

(Original post by Camel)
As a born again Christian, the only argument I would ever make in favour of Christianity is that it is the only way to have everlasting life with the Lord.

However, people of all religions, including Christians, often have to defend their faith to non-believers, and a good way of doing this is by pointing out all the societal benefits of religion - charity, compassion and hope.

Atheists typically respond by pointing out what they believe to be negative effects of religion. However they never make an argument for atheism.

I wonder why?

Do atheists feed the poor? Do atheists offer pastoral care on a similar scale?

I think the answer to that is a big fat NO.

So, prove me wrong. Enlighten me. Name something good which is a direct result of atheism.

Thanks, Cam.

You must have a list of people who contribute to "Good causes". I wonder if I am on that list, obviously not as I am an Atheist. What a puerile load of garbage you spout, what about the sects in christianity, moonies, children of god etc. paedophile christians. Of course I would'nt think you were one of them. So dont label atheists as uncaring beings.

[Carter78]

(Original post by garfeeled)
as an atheist my self i obviously dont believe in god but there are hundreds of atheists that have done wonders to society.

Dirac (theoretically proved antimatter)

paul bert ( oxygen toxicity)
robert cailliau (internet)
sean M carroll (dark energy and general relativity)

Bill gates (charity)
francis chick (co-discoverer of D.N.A structure)
thomas edison
Einstein
Hugh everett 111 (many worlds interpretation)
pierre simon laplace (mathmaticaly anticipated other galaxies and black holes)

need i go on.

plus the reason atheists tend talk about the negative effects of religion is because it kinda cancels out all the good eg

the church prevented hundreds of advances in medicine and science, galileo and william harvey
Crusades

hosni mubarak
king abdullah
talat pasha
bashar al assad
muammar qaddafi
osama bin laden
saddam hussein
haj amin al husseini
idi amin
ruhollah khomeini
sun myung moon
david koresh
pat robertson
matthew hale
michael bray
paul jennings hill
marshall herff applewhite jr
jim jones
charles coughlin
fred phelps
to name a few

I like your train of thought but this doesn't prove anything and simply revokes a typical argument used by the religious to discredit atheism. I.E "Hitler and Stalin were Atheists, ergo Atheism must be morally vacant".

Simply listing a list of names from Good or Bad people from either side of the debate and tallying up the score doesn't knock up a victory for anything.

My view is that Atheism controbutes more to an individual's actions in life. I, like many Atheists find our lack of belief in a supernatural deity very life-affirming and freeing. We typically "believe" in improving the standard of living for all as we have come to the conclusion that we only have one life.

The knock-on effect of Atheistic attitudes toward life are best expressed in Humanism and secularism. Which I would argue provides a huge amount of benefit to society and to the overall evolving cultural standards of humanity.

[Carter78]

(Original post by aljolson)
You must have a list of people who contribute to "Good causes". I wonder if I am on that list, obviously not as I am an Atheist. What a puerile load of garbage you spout, what about the sects in christianity, moonies, children of god etc. paedophile christians. Of course I would'nt think you were one of them. So dont label atheists as uncaring beings.

To paraphrase Hitchens, you sir give off the great impression of not having ever once looked into the opposing argument to this debate.

A casual two-second Google trip will give you a whole host of Atheist charities.

Just the first link on Google presents a good dozen or so organisations.
Link: http://www.squidoo.com/Atheist-Charities

The most "famous" atheist charity of course is the superb Non-believers giving Aid - supported by the Richard Dawkins foundation, The British Humanist Alliance and the Secular Student Alliance among many other Atheist groups.
Link: http://givingaid.richarddawkins.net/


Have you ever considered why there are Atheist charities in the first place? Religious charities must be (at least in part) carrying out their good deeds in order to either;
A, accumulate brownie points from God which will increase their chance of getting into Heaven.
Or
B, please the big "CCTV camera" in the sky for fear of direct punishment from God if they fail to do good deeds.

Of course, we can debate if Atheists only do the good deed that they do entirely for "earthly" reasons such as receiving respect or admiration from their peers. - This would obviously mean that Atheists are just as capable of carrying out un-altruistic deeds as the religious.

You see, things are not always black and white my friend are they?

[Forum User]

Why should atheism contribute anything to society? The question is meaningless - atheism is a lack of belief in gods not a system of values.

Suppose Bertrand Russell came up to you and told you there was a teapot orbiting the earth. You look at him knowingly and say "Well, I can't emphatically disprove you but sorry, I really don't believe that to be the case". Would you not think it strange if his retort was 'well, what does your belief contribute to society'? Why should that belief contribute anything to society? It has nothing to do with society at all. I am sure there are some horrible horrible people who don't believe that teapots orbit the earth, as well as some genuinely nice ones who make babies giggle and puppies smile when they walk past, who also don't believe in orbiting teapots.

Furthermore, one does not choose one's beliefs based on whether something would be good for society if true. I might think 'you know, the world would be a better place if there was a teapot orbiting it', but that does not affect whether I actually believe that is the case or not. It might be great fun if the world was perched on the back of a giant tortoise dashing through space, but again, no matter how good for society that might be, I don't believe it. If the gravitational constant was a bit less we could jump really high and that would be terrific fun - but I don't believe it is.

[aljolson]

(Original post by Carter78)
To paraphrase Hitchens, you sir give off the great impression of not having ever once looked into the opposing argument to this debate.

A casual two-second Google trip will give you a whole host of Atheist charities.

Just the first link on Google presents a good dozen or so organisations.
Link: http://www.squidoo.com/Atheist-Charities

The most "famous" atheist charity of course is the superb Non-believers giving Aid - supported by the Richard Dawkins foundation, The British Humanist Alliance and the Secular Student Alliance among many other Atheist groups.
Link: http://givingaid.richarddawkins.net/


Have you ever considered why there are Atheist charities in the first place? Religious charities must be (at least in part) carrying out their good deeds in order to either;
A, accumulate brownie points from God which will increase their chance of getting into Heaven.
Or
B, please the big "CCTV camera" in the sky for fear of direct punishment from God if they fail to do good deeds.

Of course, we can debate if Atheists only do the good deed that they do entirely for "earthly" reasons such as receiving respect or admiration from their peers. - This would obviously mean that Atheists are just as capable of carrying out un-altruistic deeds as the religious.
ATHEIST.
You see, things are not always black and white my friend are they?

carter you should aim your gun at the idiot who started the thread, I AM THE QUINTESSENTIAL ATHEIST