To the atheists who say they don't believe in god?

Question

I beg to differ because you have many of HIS ways. you all say that you do good things for people, believe in helping humanity, and many of the same things as christians believe in.

why do you believe in the same principals as christians, but continue to deny faith in god. it just doesn't make sense. If you truly didn't believe in a higher power, I'd think you would live your life a little differently, freer with less accountability.

Answer 1

We have morals as HUMANS. Many faiths have similar morals, does that make them pseudo-christian as well?
We don't question your faith, why do you question ours?

Answer 2

I do live my life with less accountability. I am only accountable to myself and my children. I am accountable to them, because it is my responsibility to raise them, care for them, and love them.

Many of the principles of christianity are also shared with other religions as well. They don't hold the copyright of living a good life, helping others when you can, and being honorable and faithful. There are a great many religions where those same principles are the case. What I do not believe is that there is a god of some form controlling this whole thing we call the universe. I don't believe there was a emaculate conception. I do not believe that a man lived, dies, and was raised from the dead.

Like I said in an answer to another question, I don't understand why people think that just because you don't believe in a higher power, you can't live a good life. I live a good life because it is the right thing to do. Not because I believe there is some deity watching my every move judging me.

Answer 3

It's because it's not God's way, it's the human way. Humans are hard wired to be social animals. The reason for this is that humans have a better chance of survival if they stick together. Therefore people have a natural inclination to try to get along with other people and be accepted. The best way to get along and be accepted is to treat other people the way you want to be treated. It's called the Golden Rule and it is the one thing that even three year old children can understand way before they have any concept of God, heaven, hell or any religious belief system. It's human nature to fit in and to fit in you need to treat people decently. It's that simple!

By the way, I think it's awesome that you're admitting that most atheists on this site are decent people. I think that makes it obvious that you don't have to have God to be a good person. You just need a grandma/mom/ dad/ uncle (etc.) who is willing to say " Why did you smack your sister upside the head? Would you like it if someone did that to you? No? Then how about you don't do it either?" So the key to being a good person is being raised by people who are willing to take the time to make sure you're properly socialized and know how to treat others with respect. Otherwise, no amount of religious faith is going to make you a "good" person.

Answer 4

Those happen to be the principles of how many people want to live. Whether they believe in the all mighty powers of God or not doesn't matter, they can still want to be good people. You could change that question to any religion beyond Christianity too, it's more of a moralistic idea that people should be indifferently nice to everyone, or at least decent if you can't stand to be nice. Give respect, earn respect. It goes back to one of the grounds parents try to raise children on, not necessarily if you follow a religion or chose to go the way of evolution. Please keep in mind that ANYONE can want to be a good person.

I'm Christian Baptist and saying that I do not agree with you. And as I've read many others, religious or not, also do not agree. Being "Christian" does not make one supreme and a better soul over all. Like one of the guys near above me said, there are bad people out there no matter what they choose to call themselves.

Answer 5

The main reason I'm not christian is because you take all the credit for the principals when these principals are NOT christian principals. They are human principals! Buddhism came before christianity. We believe in helping people and even furthur we believe we should not have the concept of materials like money and "owning" something.
Another good reason is because not all christian principals are good. Every single christian believes that everyone that does not believe in their religion should go to hell. They may not realize it but christianity supports only christianity where as Buddhism says all religions are a pathway to heaven.
There may not be a higher power. Perhaps there is a heaven but not nessacarily a god. Perhaps a hell but no satan. In buddhism ,and I mean true buddhism not the one that got messed up, has not a single god. We do not worship buddha. We follow him.
I'll add on when I think of more!

Answer 6

Wow, you just pointed out that morals are not necessarily dictated by the belief in a higher power, congratulations!

Just because we want to be good people does not mean that our aforementioned want comes from or is an expression of a higher being, who would be a chick if anything.

We must take accountability for our actions not because the bible says so, but because we are humans and are sufficiently evolved to realize that our actions have consequences.

Living free does not mean hedonism.

Answer 7

Your ignorance of an atheist philosophy is astounding. The belief that you have to believe in deity to do good simply denies the science of sociology.

With or without deity, people will inevitably learn to do good as anything else leads to the destruction of society. Only a society that has learned to work together will survive. It's quite a Darwininan principle, and makes total sense.

No creature would exist if it's culture failed to reinforce behavior that was self destructive. Nor would a cteature exist if it had instincts that failed to provide for self preservation.

Your logic simply states "without God we wouldn't have instincts that preserved the species". You're argument then, isn't with atheists, but the entire foundation of science. You lose.

Answer 8

Because you can be a good person without believing in God. And just because i dont believe in a higher power doesnt mean i'm not accountable for my actions. You do not have to be religious to want to help humanity at all.

Answer 9

I wouldn't worry about this anymore.Jesus did visit,converse,eat,drink and many more things with people that didn't believe in him.
His followers asked Jesus how he could hang around people that didn't believe in him.
He told them they where still good people and do the right things to Gods word.The word is believe in my words and you will enter heaven.
Jesus did say do not live by the flesh.
So if they believed that it was Jesus as the true God standing there in the living flesh in front of them then that's not what the most important thing is.
Believing in him is going by his words not his physical being.I hope you understand what I mean.

Answer 10

You don't have to be a christian to believe in being a good person. Jews, Islam, Buddhists, all are good people. Yes, they have their bad ones, but so do Christians. Ever heard of the Crusades? The Dark Ages? Christian creations. it's called a conscience. it needs no faith in a "God", quite frankly, if you NEED to be a Christian to do good works, then your a loser and are doing it only for the points.

Answer 11

I am not a Christian because of Christian dogma. It requires you to die to the self and be born again, giving over your free will in the process. I choose to retain my free will. That's about it.

Also, I don't need a promise of an eternal reward to help people; I find in much more richly rewarding to help people with the knowledge that if this life is all we have, it's all the more important to help others have a good one.