(November 18, 2014 at 8:02 am)Piscinin Wrote: Every little good thing I do, I do it because I think it would be a good thing for society. Christians only do it because some book tells them to...and out of fear.
Exactly, I don't think anyone can seriously dispute that there are atheists and atheist groups that do good things for people, so which is the sign of the better person: the person who does good because he wants to or the person who does good because he is told he has to if he wants a heavenly scoobie-snack.
Now I don't necessarily think this means that all atheists are just naturally altruistic--there are lots of 'rewards' people get from doing good deeds. Whether public acknowledgement or simply the warm, fuzzy feelings of helping someone, every good deed is motivated by some desire for return on the investment. However, I don't think Christians can truly boast their deeds when their three main objectives are 1) get out of hell 2) get into heaven and 3) inculcate the masses.