With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things......

Question

......But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.


What are your thoughts on this statement?

No, I do not think evil comes only from religion......

I do not think either that some people are born evil and with that they exist purely to cause harm....I think that they are born and then choose their actions which makes them good or evil.

Very impressive weemaryanne

Answer 1

Nope. Non religious, good person, but still do evil at times. Just look at your question: good or evil? Your intent was to insult spiritual people, therefore evil. More than likely you consider yourself a good person. But maybe not.

Answer 2

This is exactly what the culture war is all about.If there are no rules then there are no consequences. There is a force in this world trying to eradicate God and make any or every thing ok.
Before Abraham was Noah and he was found righteous without the Law. So people can do the right thing even with out the knowledge of God . Good people will reason in the positive even if the Law did not exist. The Law accuses humanity and makes it known that humanity is not perfect. The law provides us with a curb to desires.
Governments work without the benefit of religion and civil law affects us the same way. No government or religion is going to make a good person do evil things.

Answer 3

When I first read your question I agreed. On my after thought I realized this is not true. Imagine children being raised without any parents to guide them. It is the same with religion. We need a guide.

President Ronald Reagan said:

Without God there is not virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience... without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure... If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under. (Myth of Separation 249)

Abraham Lincoln also acknowledged the necessity of having laws conform to God’s will:

It is the duty of nations... to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. (Myth 259)

In my opinion, to answer your question, we can be temted in 3 basic ways as Jesus was in the desert: Physically, Mentally, or Spiritually.

To believe in your concept as a truth would be an erroneous idea. The fact is for good people to do evil things would be to succumb to temptation like any other human being.

Answer 4

I don't think evil=religion. I think it is just the opposite. You don't normally see people killing someone because they've become Christian. Sometimes people are evil because they don't like a certain type of person.. i.e. race, sex, sexual preference, and yes sometimes religion. Maybe I read the question wrong but if I read it right then you think all evil comes from religion. Well Christians are generally good people they do some wrong such as lie but if they are honestly Christians they don't commit suicide or murder people. I think all evil comes from the Devil & demonic things.

Answer 5

I agree, I think no matter what, people are gonna be either good, or bad. If Christianity hadn't put it's mark on certain 'taboos', some things might be different, not necessarily evil, but different.

If you want to imagine no religion at all from the beginning of man, then its really hard saying what things would be like. I'm sure there'd still be good and evil but it's hard to say what things would be in what catagory.

Answer 6

Statement one : I agree to some extend . In Romans 2 , those who follow the law ( know the word of God ... religion ) shall be judged by the law by God. Those who do not know the law ( no religion yet known to them ) shall be judged by their conscience... which tells them what is right from wrong... So there are good people who not even have or known a religion. But if these good people come to know and reject it , then not doing the good is a sin... we call this sin through ignorance...Furthermore, in Ezekiels 18 : if the good people turn to do bad, then their good is not remembered but shall perish... However, if the sinner turns and do good , he shall live because his bad deeds are forgiven... God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked but if the wicked does not repent or turn , then he shall die with his sins... May God Bless you

Answer 7

Not really, there are good people in every aspect of humanity, religion or not. There are hypocrites in religion but be careful with you generalization. If you are truley religious you wouldn't do evil things.

Answer 8

The Nobel-prizewinning scientist who originally said this (one Steven Weinberg) said it in an interview, so I suspect it was intended to become what it has become -- mostly a sound bite. Weinberg probably knew that the godders wouldn't understand what he meant.

Judging from some of the answers above me, he was right.

Answer 9

Yes one of Satan's tools is religion he uses religion to cause confusion, I would say that your question would really be better if you saiod Satan instead of religion, since he is the originator of false religion and uses it to confuse people. Satan is the worst enemy of mankind. when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees he was talking about the Devil being their father and he there said of Satan::"That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth."(John8:44)

Answer 10

evil doesn't exist--no one can purely exist to cause harm, and most people are inherently good--but a thought provoking question, nonetheless!