Please explain this to me?

Question

according to the Bible, people do 'bad' things (sin) because its human nature to try to do pleasurable carnal things. and satan knows our weaknesses so hes constantly tempting us to pull us away from God. sin is what seperates us from God.

according to the non-believers perspective, why do people do bad things? isn't it more 'logical' that you can just command yourself to not do things that you don't want to? an example is an obese person, why don't they just stop eating if they want to lose weight? why would some people rather get their stomach 'stapled' to cut back their appetite? If you say people like to do things that feel good/comforting, wouldn't the goal (being that they lose a lot of weight) to be healthy, more attractive, and more energy be more pleasurable of a thought?

i don't know if anybody will understand what i'm trying to say, give it a try though plz thanks!

i want this explained because i get these weird questions i want answered and i dont know any atheists who could answer them for me except you guys on here :)

enslav i'm talking about a 500 lb person who just won't stop eating....

Answer 1

Let me try and clear this up for you, just because a bunch of dead Jewish men 2000 years ago said this or that was "bad" or "sinful" doesn't mean it really is. People should obviously use common sense and not eat themselves into an early grave or go on a mass-murder spree just for the hell of it, but if you want to have that extra piece of chocolate cake or have sex before you're married I say do it. It feels good, how can it be wrong? EDIT: Nikki, I'm saying a person such as that has no common sense and deserves every bit of misery they bring upon themselves, us responsible hedonists know when to cut back without a bible. A person such as you have referred to has never used their head for anything other than a hat-rack. POST-edit: Gee, I wonder what part of my response I got the thumbs-down for......The part about not going on killing sprees, or the part about eating chocolate cake?

Answer 2

Many people who suffer from obesity really don't eat that much more than people who don't. In fact, WHAT a person eats, along with how physically active they are on a DAILY basis has a lot more to do with it. I don't know that any studies have been done yet, but I'm of the opinion that obesity in the U.S. has a lot to do with the processed foods that most of us eat everyday and not just sweets and snacks either, but the foods that are supposed to be healthy. We have omitted many of the foods that humans have eaten for centuries (specifically many of the herbs that are considered to be mere "seasoning") and moved to a more synthesized, processed diet. I believe this has a lot more to do with obesity than we have yet realized.

Also, it is important to note that obesity doesn't happen overnight, it builds up slowly over years and by the time it's realized it is already to the point that losing the weight is extremely difficult.

Answer 3

Doesn't sound like this is a question of being evil versus being good, but rather being right versus being wrong.

Inborn in everyone is an impulse to try to be right. There is also a mechanism of proving others wrong so that you can be right.
This can go further where a person does something wrong, realizes it, but asserts he is right, he justifies his actions in an infinite number of ways, just to prove that he is right.

By righting the error, he would be admitting to being wrong, which just can't happen.

One thing for sure is that truth is built by those who have the breadth and balance to see also where they're wrong.

The further down the scale the person is, the harder it is for him to admit having done wrong. Rightness is the stuff of which survival is made.

All repeated and "incurable" wrongnesses stem from the exercise of a last defense: "trying to be right." Getting the offender to admit his or her wrongness is to court further degradation of him as a being. Therefore, the purpose of punishment is defeated and punishment had minimal workability.

The question then is how does one get the offender off the compulsive repetition of the wrongness? By rehabilitating the ability to be right.

The route is to get him or her to explain how right he or she is without explaining how wrong the item being talked about is. This would be gone over several times. When he or she becomes less defensive, they begin to take a less compulsive point of view. You don't even have to agree with what they think, you just have to acknowledge it. Then suddenly, they can be right.

If this mechanism is followed carefully, without getting reactive about it, a lot of good can happen.

The road to rightness is the road to survival.
http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/sh9_5...

Answer 4

"If you say people like to do things that feel good/comforting, wouldn't the goal (being that they lose a lot of weight) to be healthy, more attractive, and more energy be more pleasurable of a thought?"

But you see, that's the problem. Their goal is only a thought. It's not real, not yet. It's not right in front of them like that pizza is. Our brains are complex enough to predict future outcomes, and plan for them, but we're still hard-wired to live for the moment, to take concrete over abstract and it's hard to overcome that. However, in fact, many people do "command" themselves to do it anyway. What do you think a diet is? Many people DO simply start eating less and exercising more. Do you really think that surgery to control weight is a more common method than diet and exercise? Far, far from it.

Answer 5

More people should study the behaviors of children more often. The true nature of people is kindness and sharing. What happens is we are taught from our parents, friends, school mates, neighbors, families to be selfish and what we consider 'bad behavior'.

Why it appears it is our nature to do bad thing is because from such a young age these things are taught, not directly, on a constant basis. This is so that when we are older, bad behavior is then second-nature to us and all good behavior is erased.

We are products of our enviorments. Good, moral, behaving children will absorb wrong behavior until its second nature and end up being just like everyone else around us.
We follow the patterns set before us.

Unless one day we learn common sense and wisdom and force ourselve to break the bad behavior and change.

Answer 6

There are a number of factors at play here. Some people don't think about the consequences of their actions; others simply don't care. Addictions to alcohol or tobacco have biological origins which can make them very hard to cure. And, sometimes, even with the best of intentions, people make mistakes. Bottom line: neither believers nor non-believers have a monopoly on doing good things -- or bad things.

Answer 7

There is pleasure in sin for a season.
I Cr 13;8a
12-8-6

Answer 8

People were created by God to have a personal relationship with Him. This void that people feel in their lives needs to be filled. It was put there to be filled by this relationship with God. Many of the things happening in people's lives are happening to them because they are trying to fill this void outside the realm of God.They try to fill it with food, sex, drugs, and even gangs.

Answer 9

The fallen man suffers from lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. The obese person you mentioned suffers from lust of the flesh and he/she has succumbed to it without spirtual help. Sometimes people can be possesed (if they are not Christians) or oppressed by the spirit of gluttonny. To have power to overcome all these lusts one should become a Christian and learn to walk by the Holy Spirit so that one would not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Only Jesus can save us from a life of sin. We cannot help ourselves if we can Jesus would not have to die for us.

Answer 10

Johnny got it.

Fun for the moment, versus lifetime of pain - Adultery for example. consequences are bleak, but it is sooo common