Non believers can you explain...?

Question

Since the beginning or recorded time all societies have had so some sort of spiritual beliefs. There has been one constant among these. Be it heaven, hell, or reincarnation they agree that ones deeds in this life effect his/her situation in the afterlife. Even in reincarnation, a good life this time will entitle you to a better life next time.

Considering some of you believe there is no God, then there must be no right or wrong.
Because, God(s) set these standards.

Some of you have indicated that you live life with integrity even though you believe that there is no God. when the only consequence to your actions is limited to what society can provide and this scenario you must get caught to be guilty. Why not live by gut instinct, survival of the fittest?

Answer 1

I SO agree with you! THANK YOU for saying that! God bless you! I was just thinking about saying that and then you did lol. ok, yes, they say we do because it IS right and its like, well where did that instinct come from that there is good and evil, there has to be a source for where that came from to know the standards.

Answer 2

You've got a lot of theory going on here, and your question seems to boil down to, if you don't believe in god, and the only thing that keeps you straight is the fear of getting caught, then why do atheists not live according to their own desires?

Well, the laws of society aren't to be sneered at. Peer pressure, conformity, etc. all steer many people, not just atheists, in the right direction.

Besides, the religious laws seem to say very little about day to day life; many people have said you don't have to be a "good" person to get to heaven. That in fact being good doesn't help you at all. So what keeps YOU in line?

And finally, "Considering some of you believe there is no God, then there must be no right or wrong. Because, God(s) set these standards."

Your logic here is faulty. You're making a giant leap which doesn't make sense.

Answer 3

ok, i believe, but, i don't believe in how you're carrying things out. let's take the whole all culture believing in something thing, it is scientificly proven that humans no matter which have to believe in something, they need some basis on which to act. a person nawadays can live without it, they now have the constitution which tells them right from wrong, they need not a god. now even if the stuff in the constitution is based from these mens believes it is still just a belief system, NOT a religion. a person can live life with integrity and have no belief. take those raised in house holds with no belief, children who have never been touched by "the devine spirit" can be the greatest people in the world and go farther than those that do believe. religion is a choice, and people can and will for all eternity choose to have or not. for whatever reasons they have it is there choice, and even if we think it's wrong it is they who must find their way (whichever it may be) by themselves. and living by gut instinct is a great idea, they would go with what they internally believe, this though has been done, there is where wars are started and people murdered in the back of bars, because everyone thinks they are right and those who don't believe will be punished. now i may sound a bit rash, but i have thousands of years of history to back me up as well as personal experiences. humanity is ment to conform, we conform to societies beliefs, we fallow what the big groups or religions believe. religion is conformitty at it's best.

Answer 4

You are correct. People seem to have historically "needed" some sort of spirituality. Why? I can't exactly say, but I can guess.

Geneticist Dean Hamer postulates that faith exists on the genetic level. He supposes that there is a so-called "god-gene" that determines the level of faith that an individual has. This is one possibility.

There is also the fact that people have, historically, needed a way to explain things that were, at the time, unexplainable. This is where gods enter the equation. Thunder and lightning? Based on the limited knowledge base of people in earlier timespans, these natural phenomena would very likely have seemed to the result of anger. Personifying the weather gives us gods. The sun itself is rather easily personified into a deity as we have seen many times. The Earth, with "her" bounty easily becomes a goddess.

People with no larger frame of reference invented gods to make the overwhelmingness of existence and the strange way the world works fit into their lives. Things must have been scary and unfamiliar to early man. He did the best he could with the information he had and came up with gods to explain what he couldn't.

Now, this leads us to one of the great mysteries: what happens when we die? Humans, with their large brains and ability to conceptualize can't stand the thought that death is the end. They invented the idea of an afterlife to make their dreary short lives seem to have a greater meaning. But it wouldn't be fair if everyone got to go to paradise. Only the "good" can move on to there. Thieves, cheats, and lazy hunter-gatherers should not be allowed to partake of the heavenly feast. Well, they have to die too, so they must go somewhere bad. Hence, heaven and hell.

Now, your suppostition that god sets the standards of right and wrong is incorrect. "Right" and "wrong" are standards set by empathy and the desire to live in a smoothly running society. These are traits that we have learned by living in groups for thousands and thousands of years. If someone is killing other people in the group, the group cannot survive. The survival imperative decided long ago that killing is "wrong," as it threatens the species. Futher along the line we can see that it is "wrong" because of empathy. Not only does it threaten the species, but we can put ourselves in the victims shoes (or mammoth-skin moccasins) and realize that we would not like to be on the receiving end of violence. Therefore it is unlikely that they would like it either.

Now, your thought that you must be caught to be guilty seems to be an easy way to demonize our way of thinking. It is simply incorrect. Many "crimes" hurt everyone, even if in only a small way. Guilt is not dependent on getting caught. It happens the moment someone harms another or the group. We don't need god to legislate this idea. We only need ourselves.

Answer 5

It is a common belief that God set those standards. IE: The 10 Commandments. But Pagan societies have had those laws longer than even that. So did the Pagan Gods set the standards? (Look at Code of Hammurabi compared to when Moses was born). To say that just because a person doesn't believe in God(s) makes them not have any morals, is one of the silliest things I've ever heard of. Most ppl know it is wrong to kill another. Society sets that in place... or else we wouldn't be much of a society, now would we?

Answer 6

I was born Catholic. When I was a child, I had dealt with many tragedies. I used to pray for hours hoping for a miracle that would make my life easier. But the bad things continued to happen and one day I decided that praying is pointless. Also as a child, my parents would tell us that if we sinned, we would go to hell. But it didn't make sense that the adults were always breaking the rules with no regard for the punishment we would face in the afterlife.

I believe that there may be a God but I also believe that there are many contradictions in religion. If God loves us all no matter what moral and legal crimes we commit, why would he send us to hell? In fact, why would he create hell?

I now believe that the bible is filled with facts and fallacies from the time period it was written. It was written without the knowledge we have today and their interpretations of many events are just fairy tales with morals. We do get some history and geography lessons from it. But we also get stories of natural disasters interpreted as acts of an angry and punishing God.
And then there's stories like Noah's Ark which is proven to be not entirely true. It would have taken more than a lifetime for Noah to pile that many animals on his not-big-enough ship.

Now I have to ask, with all of the tragedies happening in the world today, why won't God send his son again? Where was the saviour when millions were being slaughtered during the Holocaust? Or how about 9/11?

And if someone declared themselves as the new Jesus, would we believe him or her? Or would we just shove them in the psychiatric ward with all of the other false Jesus'?

When you believe in religion, there is a lot to consider. Even my father who was a devout Catholic for many years has come to believe my theories make sense. At least more sense than the bible itself.

I believe that there are good religions out there that help people feel good about themselves. But I also think that there have been too many people slaughtered for their beliefs. I would like to see a future where people are more spiritual on a personal level and accepting but smart about their beliefs too.

So as for your question, right and wrong was being taught way before the bible was written. And my view is that there is far more wrong than right in the bible.

Answer 7

It's my belief that there must be a level of integrity and decency in the society. Most people are fully conscious of what may remain unacknowledged; awareness of right and wrong. Yes - you could say it was a gut instinct. But also, in any society there must be discipline and I think religions have as their purpose to bring spirituality to the masses, and try and reach into the soul of mankind. This purpose seems to be to bring peace and goodwill through to each and every human being. Religious practice is geared in this direction. Religious wisdom has to be found by the person upon inspection.
Hope this helped with your question.

Answer 8

You don't need God to tell you what to do all the time. Anyway who listens to God anyway because despite 98% believers, this world is so full crime, hate and greed. In fact the greed for getting close to God is the most important factor which leads people to lead a dual life , they feel that they can get away with a sin just because there is God up there who will forgive them. Even the strictest of religious people live a corrupt and evil life. Most of the non believers believe in themselves rather than an abstract content that is propagated by religion

Non believers hold themselves accountable for any evil thing they do as they have no one to blame to and hence they have a very fine sense of what is right and what is wrong because God may forget you but you can't forgive yourself so easily

Answer 9

Considering some of you believe there is no God, then there must be no right or wrong.
Because, God(s) set these standards.

Nonsense statement. You know what's right or wrong without God's interjections. You know that sticking your finger in someones eye is wrong because before you do it you know you wouldn't like it!

The God /religion thing is simply a way to get a set of rules by which society can function without total chaos, because there are those who have different values and understanding of right and wrong. Pedophiles and car salesmen to name but a few.

Answer 10

First of all....man has said God(s) set these standards. There has only been an afterlife and religion in every society because of mans inability to believe that death is actually the end. It scares most humans to believe that there is nothing after death so they have created an afterlife to have something to aspire to. Religion is certainly not the dictator of a good society. More death has happened in the name of religion than for any other cause. Let me pose one to you. If there is ONE God, then why are there so many splintered groups killing one another over what they claim is their Gods will here on earth. Why are there so many religions of which,by the way, Christianity isnt the biggest, claiming that theirs is the one true religion.

Answer 11

Why would the fact that we don't believe in god mean there is no right or wrong to us? We simply do not believe that "god" created us, and that the bible is true... to us, it is NOT, so therefore these "rules" were not created by "god". We are people just like you, who do things normally. We go to school, we get jobs, we have friends, and real lives. What someone does/or does not believe, does not make someone bad....or someone that should be looked down upon. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions...not everyone believes the same things, which is what makes the world what it is.

I have read parts of the bible before..and found alot of hate it in. And hate is not good....