Atheists would you rather live in a world of anarchy?

Question

OK you don't believe in god. But the majority human sense of morality comes from religion even if it was human fabrication. Yes, there are religious wars but in times of peace would not the absence of religious morals cause anarchy. There is crime but there is also majority of good people who donot commit crime because of their own sense of religious morality which stops them first not because of law. Law enforcement reaches after the crime is commited. Our laws of not to kill, steal etc have some religious background. How can human society exist in the complete absence of religion? A lot of laws would have to be struck out for nonbelievers! There are some sick ppl out there.. would you be willing to tolerate cannibalism reverting to nature survival of the fittest? Even if god is an illusion why remove the placebo effect. It won't work with all knowing the absence of god!

Answer 1

I am an atheist.

First, fear of punishment keeps people from breaking the law, whether secular or temporal. I don't rob a bank because I don't want to go to jail. I have actually heard that religion came about because of evolution as a way to keep people from killing each other. Laws can have their source from religion, but they should be secular in nature(like letting gays marry). I personally have found that atheist are more likely to be christian in their actions with others and christians. I think it is because atheist have taken more possession of their lives, and therefore the responsibility.

Answer 2

I don´t really know what to say so I will go slow and breath as I do it.
I´m a catholic I love my faith respect the gold rule and try to go along the main flow of ideal catholic church stands for , even when find myself in a contrary position to it I respect the autority that comes from rome. Yet being honest I have to say that many of the problems of the nowaday world stnad on religious basis, this is intolerance , racism and war. the holy spirit and jesus himself made celar that the tribulation was needed. And this counts towards all religious either by their wish to segregate themselves from the world or to impose their belief on others. and this is only on western civilizations. Asians did not have a bible for some few thousands of year and still they grow out a nice culture very rich and evoled their own morality and belief systems and so it was all around the world. Back to my believers points you cannot place yourself in a position where u "say if it all is an llusion" .
Anyway as a humanist (and there are many peple that without having the need of God had taken this path) I´d say that good lies within the human heartand that it can stretch out a hand without the need of a God law (otherwise you would be very hypocrite because if man has something to do with god and god is good humans don´t really need to recognize it to have it anyway ).
I do believe making the right choices is complicated and how we live with them maybe mysterious. Anyway the christ made himself blood and flesh and he indeed doubted of God´s design but because he was both God and human made a choice and took his own path. Now I would ask how many atheus or belivers would do the same (sacrifice themselves for the many) and I believe there will be raised hands on both sides.

Answer 3

Morality arose with civilization, as a means of enabling humans to get along better in societies that were rapidly evolving from hunter-gatherer tribes, to agriculture-oriented towns and villages. More people in a smaller area, dependent upon each other for their goods and services, needed rules of behavior if they expected to survive. No deity was needed for this; it is a natural extension of the rules of behavior that govern any animal society. If you want the protection of the group, then you behave in a manner that is appropriate to maintaining the safety and well-being of other members--and that means not killing them, stealing from them, etc.

Religion only entered the picture when certain clever humans realized that they could gain power over lesser humans by claiming that a powerful, invisible being gave them their authority. It was the same being who made the lightning, the spring floods, and earthquakes, the same being who caused crops to wither in the summer heat or thrive in the rain. This being is telling me to give you these laws, and if you don't believe me, he will cause your fields to die and your women to miscarry, and then he will send you to a horrible place of everlasting suffering when you die! He is also telling me that you must bring me the best of your plantings and your herds.

"Even if god is an illusion why remove the placebo effect. It won't work with all knowing the absence of god!"

In other words, you recommend keeping people ignorant and sheep-like? When did ignorance ever advance the human race? If people do good only because they are terrified of the boogieman in the sky, then they are not truly moral. If they do good in spite of having no belief in a supernatural deity, then they behave well out of their own free will, and not because they are threatened with punishment. It is knowledge, not ignorance, that frees them from this imaginary threat.

Answer 4

morality.... lessons to be, or have been learned.
Seems to me that the christians think there has been nothing to learn in 2000 years. Us regular humans however have been learning lessons all the way through. We have a sense of morality.

"Even if god is an illusion why remove the placebo effect"?
you must think us stupid... if god is an illusion you are a liar.
religions have been developed through war and murder. you make bad karma for us all....

Answer 5

Thanks for asking!
1. There ARE no times of peace that I can find in history except the couple hundred years of the 'pax Romana' which was really a fluke.

2. Morality and the 'golden rule' do not require god, GOD, Allah, or any other imaginary friends. Want YOUR fingernails pulled out? Ouch, Don't pull out other people's fingernails. Get it?

Morality and living a human existance do not require deity.

Answer 6

It's not that religious people can't be good without god, because human laws are a stronger motivator than something you have no tangible proof of. Atheists still have to survive and make a living, and anarchy would do more harm than benefit.

Answer 7

Religion is one of the reason our society is disorderly especially Christianity. Ever since Christianity has been spread across the world, we had all these bad things happen to us. Like WW! and WWII, Imperialism, Racism, Anti-Semitsm, Ethnic-Cleansing, and Religious Persecution. Maybe a lot of African, Asian, and Native American people would still have there own culture and traditions if the ignorant Christan know-it-alls didn't force them to convert.

Answer 8

Or, religion comes from a sense of human morality. Thus, religion isn't needed for order.

Answer 9

Morality and laws all evolved as we evolved. mythology and religions arose to pass on the morals and laws through story telling ( language and writing are relatively recent).

atheism does not equate immorality or anarchy.

fundementally buddhists are atheist, yet its practically the most peaceful religion

Answer 10

you shall not murder, kill, steal, ly, hurt, etc, etc....all human sense of morality.

they do not come from religion, they are put into religion, because they are so common. Anybody knows that, yet religion claims to have been the inventors of morality. that's truly a joke.