Are athiests better people than christians?

Question

I know, I know. An inflamatory question, right? I'm an athiest and it annoys me when christian friends (yeah, some of my best friends are ...) tell me I have no basis for moral values. I think altruism (as well as evil) are intrinsic parts of the human psych, not dependent on beliefs. My athiest friends and I hold the same values of equality and morality as the christians. Ideas?

Answer 1

i think religon-christianity or any other have no part in making ppl better.
its all about being a great human being and your karma will reward you.
religon or the lack of it is insignificant as long as we are not evil and we intend to do no harm.

Answer 2

It depends on what you believe.LOL. If you believe that people are the way they are because of what they believe in or what they don't believe in, then what makes the difference in the way they act? Some people have self control and are more unselfish than others. I don't know if believing in any certain thing will give you higher morals than others, but if you really believe in something, you have more of a determination to be "better". I guess it really does depend on how you look at it. Christians believe that there is a higher power out there that makes the rules about good and bad. What do athiests believe? That we all have a conscience that comes from.........what? Ourselves? Then how can we judge whether someone is better than someone else? What are morals anyway? How do we determine what is "better"? How can you believe in "evil"? What is evil? How do you know what evil is?
Good question you got there. It brings more questions to bear.
If you are in a war, which side is good? and which side is evil? What is it in your psyche that judges good from evil?

What gets me is that your Christian friends say that you have no basis for moral values. If they truly believed in God, they would believe that He created moral values in everyone. Someone once said, "You may not believe in God, but He believes in you."

I guess I just don't understand the question. There are more religions than just Christian. Are the people who believe in those other religions without morals as well?

Like I said in the beginning, it depends on what you believe. If you believe that there IS good and bad in everyone and everyone has the choice to be either good or bad, then you would say that some people are good and some people are bad, and what they believe has nothing to do with it.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...................................

Answer 3

I think both athiests and christians have the potential to twist their beliefs in order to act immorally. An athiest could embrace the believes of machiavelli or hobbes and form brutal governments (weak argument I suppose), and violence with christian roots has been commonplace for years. I don't necessarily know that morality is objective, but I don't think that athiests need a book to feel a sense of right and wrong. I've talked to many fine athiests before, and many fine christians. I guess I don't believe either group is better than the other. Both can be arrogant or humble, it's a person to person thing I guess. None of this was earth shattering or profound, but I like looking into these questions regardless.

Answer 4

I don't think any INTELLIGENT person would think more or less of ANYONE based on what they believe.

It's simply, what it IS. Belief.

I've had friends of all faiths from around the world, including athiests.

I use to be one.

I changed my mind due to certain events that could only be explained by devine intervention and a lot of other things too that can't be explained other than God truley does exist. I had a life after death experience, that is impossible to forget. That was an eye opener! That's just me but I would shoot myself before EVER trying to convert someone to believe what I do. It really doesn't matter.

Forcing someone to believe what they believe is just wrong.

There is something wrong with those people. They just don't get it.

Having the right to believe in what you want, is RIGHT.

Good for you. Don't let people push you around.

You are just as valuable as anyone else!

Answer 5

There can be good athiests and bad athiests
There can be good Christians and bad Christians
we all have the ability to know right from wrong
some people listen to their conscience and some suppress it

however, lots of people (including me) do believe that Christianity can help lead people to being better

Answer 6

As far as being a little more out of the box and free thinking i feel your are more progressive than the christian "club" members, but as far as denouncing the existence of god at all... might be a response from the "bad taste in your mouth" type experience growing up or what have you but i would recommend the book "What God Wants" by Neale Diamond Walsh. don't worry this isn't a Jesus loves you book or anything like it. its a book that teaches unity and togetherness and brings your concept of a god into a more plauseable perspective... you would particularly appreciate it because you on the outside looking in so to speak.

Answer 7

i would say that athiests and christians are about the same, just on opposite sides of the fence. Is it better to have false beliefs (christian) or no beliefs (athiest) are shouldn't we all be agnostic (I believe in a higher power but I am not naive enough to pretend to know what it is and label it.)

Answer 8

Well first of all no one is better then other.we all inherited sin and death,but Jesus paid the ransom for us to have life,and have a chance to repent and have a chance at everlasting life,some people are thank full for that and others are not.it does make you look bad because you don't believe in God but that is your choice.we will let God be the judge of that,no one should think they are better then others i don't care what religion you are,we are all humans and all have the same problem we have sin and death.we will not know till the last day of this wicked system,to find out who is .

Answer 9

No one is better than anyone else just because of a worldview. However, if I were to judge by this site alone, then I would have to say that I like more of the atheists here than I do the Christians - with some exceptions, of course.

Answer 10

Christians expect God to miraculously intervene in human affairs to bring justice to the world and are content to sit back and wait for that to happen.

Atheists realize that the only way justice will be found on Earth is if it is created by humans and are therefore more likely to do something about it themselves.

Atheists are better.

Answer 11

Your belief doesn't make you a better person. So, you cannot generalize and say athiest are better than christians or christians are better than athiest. We are all the same. We sometimes commit mistakes and we sometimes do things right. There is no better person, no better belief, and no better religion.