what is a good person?

[Jenny A]

I rather like this bit from Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum

I rather like this bit from Terry Partchet's Carpe Jugulum

Being a good person is not treating other people like things.


(Terry Pratchett has written some lovely spoofs on religion in his Disc World series).

[Knowledge of God]

I rather like this bit from Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum

I rather like this bit from Terry Partchet's Carpe Jugulum

Being a good person is not treating other people like things.

Although they think of themselves as such.

[Jenny A]

Although they think of themselves as such.

Do you mean that if people don't have an everlasting soul they are things? If so, I can almost hope you don't lose faith, because a person who thinks others are merely things is dangerous.

[Rampant.A.I.]

We're addressing what qualities or attributes makes or defines a person's character overall as morally correct and emphatic towards others.

Doing Gods will.

Somebody missed out on the euthyphro dilemma.

[Welsh cake]

Wrong, WC! Those people are false Christians! No, Christian has ever done a depraved act! (thought I'd save you the trouble, knowledgeofgod)

Don't steal Christians' thunder ohword.

Without the noise and flashy spectacle, all they have is nothing.

[Losty]

so I've often heard people say I don't need religion to be a good person. may I ask your opinion on what a good person is?

To be a good person one must follow the golden rule: Don't be a dick.

---

Only 11 posts till a Christian had to pull Jesus out of his arse and try to twist it around.

To Knowledge of God, I ask you- is your motivation to be good only to reap an eternal reward from Skydaddy? Then you are only selfish.

Since you are going there, I seek approval of God, and not of man.

If there was no god, no one to seek approval or rewards from, would you still try to do good things? You don't have to answer the question for us just think about it. If the answer is no, then you are a part of the problem.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Personally, I think the terms 'good' or 'bad' person are to subjective to interpretation. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a good or bad person, but simply individuals that practice good actions more than bad and others that practice bad actions more than good. I know this position is bound to critics, but for me a 'good' (I'll use this term to facilitate the reply) person or bad is based on one factor - Result. In other words, I don't think having inner morals or ethics make you a 'good' person, but your actions and the results you achieve do. If someone wants to change the world and end poverty, with the best of intentions, but doesn't do a damn thing a about it, it's irrelevant. If someone donates billions and helps everyone in a positive, beneficial way to society, even if done by the less altruistic reasons (eg bragging, recognition, or simply because you have no use for money), is enough for me to consider someone good. I don't believe however that the means always justify the end, but without the result the intention becomes useless. In other words and as an atheist, I'd rather have a religious person donating billions because he/she is afraid of going to hell, than a non believer that doesn't donate anything because he/she thinks not having an obligation (moral or ethical) to do so.

As the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once wrote, "The line between good and evil runs down the middle of every man's heart."

To me, the obvious corollary is that both good and evil are, at one level of thought or another, choices.