Why be good?

[Esquilax]

He made us in His image.

And here it is, that exact problem I predicted, where theists attempting to answer this question do so in vague irrelevancies, with the expectation that we'll just take the leap of faith between those two unconnected points. Well, I won't: how does "god created man in his image," in any way entail that "god gets to judge us"?

God does not opine. He knows. And He doesn't have to think it through and come to a conclusion through a process of discovery. He knows.

Except if he doesn't, which is kinda the important part; beyond the fiat assertion that god just knows, you have absolutely no way of confirming that, and worse still, you're conflating an assertion of certainty with the actual state of knowledge one has about an event. I can proclaim I know this, and I know that, but that doesn't mean I actually do, it just means I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that I do.

For example, it's impossible for god to know everything, because he would not be able to know that he knows everything; obviously, if god is ignorant of the existence of things, he would still believe himself to know everything, while actually not, as he is unaware of the things he does not know. That's kinda how ignorance of things works. Unknown unknowns are a problem for us all, god is not excluded from that merely because you believe god knows everything.

Because might makes right.

Oh, that and the fact that God does not opine. He knows.

So, a completely immoral, morally relativistic claim, from the man who started this thread talking about how he believes in objective, transcendent moral absolutes... so there's the basis of this thread up in smoke, good job there.

Oh, and the completely unjustified fiat assertion. Can't forget that.

There are no atheists in foxholes. When you think you are about to die, you'll be ready to get serious with God.

Okay, serious question: what the fuck is actually wrong with you?

Why do you think it's at all acceptable to behave this way? Why do you think you have this right to dictate to me what my position is, to tell me what I know and feel? Do you honestly think that's a good way to go about conversation? Do you see me doing that to you?

And how dare you, by the way, impugn the beliefs of atheists, including those who have died protecting your presumptuous, condescending ass from all manner of things? Where do you get off speaking for the atheist soldiers, risking their lives for all of us? Who the hell do you think you are?

Well, I can answer a bit of that: you're flat wrong, is what you are, and I can tell you why. You probably haven't met my wife, she hasn't been around the forum much lately, but do you want to know why that is? She's sick. She's been sick for a long time, close to death more than once, actually. Her deconversion began on what could very much have been her deathbed, in intensive care, as her organs started failing and your god was nowhere to be found, as her family prayed for her recovery, and she placed her faith in god to cure her, forgoing medical treatment to that end.

Do you know what saved her life? Giving up on your god, and going with the medical treatment. The limitations of her ability to believe your puerile nonsense saved. her. life. She was at her sickest in that moment, obviously, as her condition was only getting worse when she had faith, and in that moment the beautiful atheist woman I know and love began to emerge. She was about to die, and she was ready to leave your useless concept of a god behind, and you do not get to speak for her!

She had another low point just recently, could have easily died then too, just after we got married. She didn't, three surgeries later and she's getting better, but there was no prayer, there was no entreaties to god to save her, there was no hospital bed conversion, nor any sacharrine nonsense; when she bled so much, spontaneously and suddenly, that she needed a blood transfusion, the chaplain came, and the chaplain was refused when he offered to pray with us. My wife is stronger than the weakness you wish to snidely foist upon us, and you do not get to speak for her, or for me, or for any of us.

Maybe I sound mad. Maybe through your haze of self-righteous asinine horse shit you picked up on that. Well, it's true, I am angry. It drives me to apoplexy when I see arrogant moral monsters like you loftily descending from your perch to deign to tell us unwashed heathens what we believe. It truly angers me when you feel you have the right to rob us of our voices, to jam your self-reinforcing delusions into our mouths, all the while luxuriating in the pretense that you're here for an intellectually rigorous debate. It pisses me right the fuck off to watch you swan around and pretend you know better than me, a complete stranger, about what I believe.

So congrats for that. Good job. Not a day goes by when you aren't a poster child for the utterly repulsive things your religion degrades its believers into.