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Atheist Forums › Community › Religion › Christianity v
Why be good?

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Why be good?
Alex K Offline
Ich fühle Luft von anderem Planeten
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#251
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 11:15 am
Again - There is a book by Darwin on earth worms. End of argument.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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SteelCurtain Offline
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#252
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 11:18 am
Careful, Randy. Continued willful ignorance and your thread might just turn into a heated rock crushing debate.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great

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Alex K Offline
Ich fühle Luft von anderem Planeten
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#253
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 11:24 am (This post was last modified: May 29, 2015 at 11:25 am by Alex K.)
Yes. The LORD will crush those who bear false witness, like a vertical rotary crusher crushes rocks!

[Image: Cone-Crusher-movie.gif]

Watch closely what happens to those rocks, Randy...
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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downbeatplumb Offline
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#254
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 2:56 pm
(May 26, 2015 at 7:29 pm)Randy Carson Wrote: If there is no God, then there is no hell; and if there is no hell, then there are no ultimate, eternal repercussions, good or bad, for how we live out our mortal lives. Of course, atheists insist that people should be "good without God."

But why? If God does not exist, why be good?

I'm quite nice so act nice.

Randys line of reasoning seems to be that only thing holding Christians in check from a bloody rampage is their fear of something that does not exist.

This worries me.



You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.

Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.




 








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Sappho Offline
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#255
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 3:05 pm
(May 26, 2015 at 7:29 pm)Randy Carson Wrote: If there is no God, then there is no hell; and if there is no hell, then there are no ultimate, eternal repercussions, good or bad, for how we live out our mortal lives. Of course, atheists insist that people should be "good without God."

But why? If God does not exist, why be good?

because otherwise people will linch you.
easy enough.
and because some feel bad doing those things


but we should let the big mass believe they should do good, because otherwise there would be no society to live in
the ones who understand there is no good or bad can benefit from that

the smart ones win
always
whatever floats your goat
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Simon Moon Offline
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#256
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 3:06 pm
(May 29, 2015 at 9:28 am)Randy Carson Wrote: It seems to me that these are examples of Darwinism at work...and evidence that evolution's demand that only the strong survive is still in full effect.


Wow. 

A theist that doesn't understand survival of the fittest. Who would have thought it possible?


Different organisms have different survival strategies that make them fit for survival.

Cheetahs can run fast, wolves hunt in packs, snails lay millions of eggs, great apes (bonobos, humans, chimps) survive by altruism, cooperation, reciprocity. 

Being the meanest, strongest, selfish bastard works great for tigers,  not so much humans. 

You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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robvalue Offline
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#257
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 5:26 pm (This post was last modified: May 29, 2015 at 5:34 pm by robvalue.)
The problem with any question that begins, "Without God..." is the suggestion/assumption that this would actually be a change. Since no God has been demonstrated at all, certainly not one that is actually doing anything, there's no reason to think "Without God" refers to anything different than the reality we know and love.

I would hope religious theists who are honest enough would admit there's a chance they may be mistaken, and that in fact they are worshipping nothing at all. Or something totally unlike what they think they're worshipping. So clearly the belief that some hidden entity is going to punish you is enough, whether or not it actually exists. Just like if someone tells you a sniper has you in their sights so to do what they say, if you believe there is the sniper, it doesn't matter if there actually is one or not.

Since there are contradictory God claims, with people all saying they get their morality from their God, a lot of people are going to be worshipping nothing / the wrong God and still somehow getting their morality. It seems pretty clear that the idea morality comes from religion is just part of the indoctrination.
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Pyrrho Offline
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#258
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 6:17 pm
(May 29, 2015 at 2:56 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote:
(May 26, 2015 at 7:29 pm)Randy Carson Wrote: If there is no God, then there is no hell; and if there is no hell, then there are no ultimate, eternal repercussions, good or bad, for how we live out our mortal lives. Of course, atheists insist that people should be "good without God."

But why? If God does not exist, why be good?

I'm quite nice so act nice.

Randys line of reasoning seems to be that only thing holding Christians in check from a bloody rampage is their fear of something that does not exist.

This worries me.

It should not worry you.  They are wrong about that, like they are about so much else.

"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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Randy Carson Offline
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#259
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 7:12 pm
(May 27, 2015 at 4:06 pm)Faith No More Wrote: I can't be arsed to go through nine pages, but I have to say this.  Every time someone asks, "Why be good without God?" I hear the person saying, "I only do good for a reward."

Then you're not really listening to the question.
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Ravenshire Offline Donators
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#260
RE: Why be good?
May 29, 2015 at 7:37 pm (This post was last modified: May 29, 2015 at 7:37 pm by Ravenshire.)
Randy, I'd like to recommend a more fitting avatar:
[Image: url?sa=i&source=imgres&cd=&ved=0CAkQjBww...8957079363]
Thief and assassin for hire. Member in good standing of the Rogues Guild.
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Atheist Forums › Community › Religion › Christianity v
Why be good?

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