Christians/good people

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'll be there is even a good muslim or two out there if you go by that standard!

Well, I've met a few Muslims, and none of them tried to blow me up. I can't say the same about Catholics.

Boru

[The Valkyrie]

I'll be there is even a good muslim or two out there if you go by that standard!

Well, I've met a few Muslims, and none of them tried to blow me up.  I can't say the same about Catholics.

Boru

I once had a Muslim guy in my office who refused to be seen by a woman.

And then demanded that a male surgeon come to MY office to see him.

I ended up having to get him escorted out of my office.

One guy being a douche is not representative of the whole group, of course.

[Regina]

I went with B

I know "Christians" who are good people, but they are not devout.

I do think the more devout a religious person is, then inversely the more immoral they tend to become. Of course in their own eyes, these people are "moral" in the religious sense, but in the real world there's nothing moral about shoving your unwanted opinions down other peoples' throats.

That's how I feel. Sure, I guess there's some people out there who are strictly religious in their own personal life choices but don't care what other people do, but those people are few and far between. Most extremely devout Christians and Muslims can't keep their religion and their opinions to themselves, because being a parasite who has to spread the religion is a core theme of both faiths.

[Catholic_Lady]

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

[MTL]

I have always said that there are both good and bad people who are Theists

AND good and bad people who are Atheists.

But I consider Theists who are good-hearted to still be misguided to agree to a dangerous thing like the religion,
and can be capable of doing a lot of damage...
...there's the old saying that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I'd be interested to see a similar Poll taken of Theists
to see what percentage of them believe Atheists are capable of being good people;

(And to see if they can be honest enough to observe that while there may be good and bad Atheists out there,
it is undeniable that Atheism, in and of itself,
never did the damage that Religion has done to the world).

I'd be somewhat surprised if the results correspond to this Poll;
I think most Theists believe most Atheists are immoral.

One ironic note: I have personally long been of the opinion that it is highly unlikely that the world leaders of religion, such as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, are actually Theists;
I can only believe that they are probably secretly Atheists.....and not very good people, either.

See,

I can understand 90% of the world believing in some kind of god,
I can understand someone devoting their life to evangelism, like Billy Graham,
I can understand well-intentioned, lower echelon spiritual leaders, like Priests.

But for an educated LEADER personality to ascend so high in the ranks,
aware of the evil that is done in the name of religion,
and continuing to manipulate the masses,

they MUST have realized at some point what the sheeple do not;
they MUST have at some point faced that Religion can only ultimately stand in the way
of anyone wanting to serve the TRUTH (and God is said to be synonymous with Truth).

THEY MUST KNOW that they are not encouraging people to serve God,
but are only encouraging people to serve Religion...

...even if it prevents people from ever finding God!

I think if there IS a God out there,
and He is synonymous with the TRUTH,

then you must realize that you have no hope of pursuing the TRUTH,
with any degree of integrity,
as long as you hang onto BELIEF....which is not the same thing as TRUTH,
and indeed, can even be the OPPOSITE of TRUTH, and lead you further astray.

If one is to have any real chance of finding GOD or TRUTH at all,
it only makes sense to relinquish all BELIEF, first,
and be open to whatever you honestly find...even if it does not comfort you.

Religious belief offers comfort. It caters to so many human needs.

But the TRUTH hurts.

I don't think God has to bribe, or threaten, people into compliance or worship.

I'd like to see more people stop being afraid to give up all BELIEF,
and go earnestly in search of the TRUTH,
however terrible it might turn out to be.

You might find GOD,
you might find TRUTH,
....and they might be the same thing, for all I know.

But you won't find either as long as you cling to the saccharine BELIEF that is designed to drug you, IMO.

I see nothing as standing between God and Man as effectively as Religion does

...if God is there to find, at all, that is.

[Pyrrho]

---

I have always said that there are both good and bad people who are Theists

AND good and bad people who are Atheists.

But I consider Theists who are good-hearted to still be misguided to agree to a dangerous thing like the religion,
and can be capable of doing a lot of damage...
...there's the old saying that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

I'd be interested to see a similar Poll taken of Theists
to see what percentage of them believe Atheists are capable of being good people;

(And to see if they can be honest enough to observe that while there may be good and bad Atheists out there,
it is undeniable that Atheism, in and of itself,
never did the damage that Religion has done to the world).

I'd be somewhat surprised if the results correspond to this Poll;
I think most Theists believe most Atheists are immoral.

---

One ironic note:  I have personally long been of the opinion that it is highly unlikely that the world leaders of religion, such as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, are actually Theists;
I can only believe that they are probably secretly Atheists.....and not very good people, either.

See,

I can understand 90% of the world believing in some kind of god,
I can understand someone devoting their life to evangelism, like Billy Graham,
I can understand well-intentioned, lower echelon spiritual leaders, like Priests.

But for an educated LEADER personality to ascend so high in the ranks,
aware of the evil that is done in the name of religion,
and continuing to manipulate the masses,

they MUST have realized at some point what the sheeple do not;
they MUST have at some point faced that Religion can only ultimately stand in the way
of anyone wanting to serve the TRUTH (and God is said to be synonymous with Truth).

---

THEY MUST KNOW that they are not encouraging people to serve God,
but are only encouraging people to serve Religion...

...even if it prevents people from ever finding God!

I think if there IS a God out there,
and He is synonymous with the TRUTH,

then you must realize that you have no hope of pursuing the TRUTH,
with any degree of integrity,
as long as you hang onto BELIEF....which is not the same thing as TRUTH,
and indeed, can even be the OPPOSITE of TRUTH, and lead you further astray.

If one is to have any real chance of finding GOD or TRUTH at all,
it only makes sense to relinquish all BELIEF, first,
and be open to whatever you honestly find...even if it does not comfort you.

Religious belief offers comfort.  It caters to so many human needs.

But the TRUTH hurts.

I don't think God has to bribe, or threaten, people into compliance or worship.

I'd like to see more people stop being afraid to give up all BELIEF,
and go earnestly in search of the TRUTH,
however terrible it might turn out to be.

You might find GOD,
you might find TRUTH,
....and they might be the same thing, for all I know.

But you won't find either as long as you cling to the saccharine BELIEF that is designed to drug you, IMO.

I see nothing as standing between God and Man as effectively as Religion does

...if God is there to find, at all, that is.

---

This is a case of liking you even when I disagree with you.  I think you are too optimistic about the intelligence of people and their ability to overcome indoctrination.  Sure, I expect some of the popes likely were really atheists, but I do not think it of all of them.  When one has spent a lifetime being deluded, why would a promotion suddenly make one reasonable?

[AFTT47]

What a nice loaded question.

Yeah, I have to agree. A, of course.

[JuliaL]

I'm convinced that religion is an emergent phenomenon of people living in groups.
The actual, specific dogmas of the individual denominations are pretty irrelevant. 
We get along  and mutually prosper through rules of thumb which generally call for suppression of 'bad' behaviors and reinforcement of 'good' behaviors.
When these rules are specified, disseminated and enforced, it is no surprise there is a substantial sub-population which engages in mostly 'good' behavior.
They'd get killed, ostracized or worse if they didn't.
By itself, that doesn't show the underlying truth of the dogmas.  Irrational, bizarre, counter to reality shared actions serve to cement the community into a common fantasy.
When previously separated, evolving, creeds come into contact, there is some fraction of their beliefs which do not correspond. 
These are seen as improper, or 'bad' from their respective perspectives.
But objectively, I'm shaky on the whole good/bad thing other than every molecule in my body exploding at the speed of light.  Total protonic reversal.
Good Christians?  You didn't leave room to vote for 'other.'

[Faith No More]

I have actually only gotten to know a handful of devout Christians in my life. Some of them were good, and some of them were assholes.

Most of them were pretty bizarre, too.

[robvalue]

I went with B

I know "Christians" who are good people, but they are not devout.

I do think the more devout a religious person is, then inversely the more immoral they tend to become. Of course in their own eyes, these people are "moral" in the religious sense, but in the real world there's nothing moral about shoving your unwanted opinions down other peoples' throats.

That's how I feel. Sure, I guess there's some people out there who are strictly religious in their own personal life choices but don't care what other people do, but those people are few and far between. Most extremely devout Christians and Muslims can't keep their religion and their opinions to themselves, because being a parasite who has to spread the religion is a core theme of both faiths.

This is what I have noticed too. I don't know the people in question well enough to give a proper judgement really. I know people who seem nice overall, but I don't know what I'd find if I kept digging.

Especially when it comes to Christianity, the more closely you follow the bible, the more of a horrible person you are going to be. You only have to read the book (all of it not cherry pick it) to see why that is. The good people are the bad christians (biblically speaking); in other words they ignore most of the bible. They justify this to themselves and others one way or another. I don't really care how they justify it, as long as they keep on ignoring it.

The ways in which Christians are "nice" are generally when they have cherry picked bits of Christianity which line up with sensible, secular morality. The more they deviate from this, the more immoral they become in my eyes.