BELIEVERS: If your actions weren't influenced by the expectations & sanctions of your god, what would you do?

Question

If your god wasn't around to say "always be good and do good", would you ever feel compelled to do good anyway? Would you be able to tell whether anything is "good" or "bad"?

If your god wasn't around to say "evildoers will be punished forever", would you feel any regret about doing things that you consider evil? Would you consider anything evil at all or would every action and consequence be equal in your eyes?

William, if you dislike hypotheticals that much then don't bother responding to them.

Answer 1

I would still do good because doing good is its own reward!

I would still feel compelled to do good because God has set the knowledge of good and evil in all of us and even he left humanity for wahtever reason, humans would still be compelled to do good. The Q is though, with this world being as bad as it is today, how much more worse would it be without Gods miracles or his guidance?

Yes there would still be regret in the times we do evil because that is the life we have sworn off.

And no, evil and good would still be distinguishable just as light and dark is. Actually there are times in life where God sets us free to test our hearts neither punishing us nor helping us, but merely leaving us exposed to the world and Satan. The same thing happened to Job and he maintained his faith, as I believe the truth believers in life would.

Answer 2

Human nature being what it is, I believe that if we were under the impression that at certain times, on specific days, God did not pay any attention to anything we did or said, I believe that we would in some instances, go "nuts," morally, if you know what I mean. Yes, we have consciences that give us some idea of what right and wrong are, but we also have baser instincts and impulses, that don't care about "right and wrong," and seek to lead us away from "right" and into "wrong."

As a Christian, I sin. I have not stopped since I became a Christian. Am I as "bad" as I used to be? No. Am I as "good" as I wish I was? No. I'm human, and I struggle.

As I mentioned above, we have consciences that give us an over-arching sense that there is "right and wrong," "good and evil." This is one of the consequences of our having been created in the image of God. When we violate that innate sense, we feel guilt, because we know we did something wrong in SOMEBODY'S eyes, be it our own, our parent's/community's, or God's. So, even without God specifically telling us what is evil, we both know that there IS such a concept of evil, and we have an idea of what constitutes it.

Answer 3

My actions are not influenced they are ingrained in me by the Almighty. They are for everyone. What is "good" or "bad" isn't relative, it has been made so by humans. You do not control your conscious, you do not control your subconscious. You control what you say, what you do, your actions but not what is right and wrong. It just is.

People will always use excuses to not take responsibility for their actions. That is what is wrong today, personal responsibility has been lost.

We are constantly being told that our God ISN'T around or couldn't be, otherwise he would prevent bad things from happening. You can't have it both ways.

What I might feel is "good" or "bad" is probably quite different from you and visa versa. God doesn't sanction this. Experience, environment and many other perceptions shape this because HUMANS have made it relative to thier circumstances.

Abortion is ok because of my circumstances . . . .. . . . its not a real baby anymore because circumstances warrant it to be that way in order for a person to kill their child.

Beating someone close to death is ok if it is a rapist because he deserves it.

Having sex before I am married is ok because I am in love is another good one.

Right and wrong is still right and wrong, however we justify it and change it. WE do that.

God has ingrained right and wrong in our psyche, WE have changed the meaning.

God Bless

Answer 4

I grew up with a father who was pagan and a mother who was very into new age stuff -- crystals, tarot, auras -- so I was taught the ideas of right and wrong from people who never read the Bible. I didn't become a Christian until I was seventeen years old, and I guess that I was lucky because the ideaology of Jesus Christ only reinforced the things that I already found important -- to love others as I love myself, not to judge others for their mistakes, and to be a positive force in the lives of other people.

As far as feeling regret about messing up ... I don't personally believe in Hell or the idea of eternal torture, so that's not an issue. My parents taught me that making mistakes would reflect not only in my life, but in the lives of others -- but making good decisions and choices would lead to positive outcomes for myself and the people that I care about. I personally think that attitude is more important then the fear of punishment.

Answer 5

It's human nature to know the difference between good and bad. I doubt an athiest would go murder someone, however, there are certain principles in a religion that do have comandments, like modesty. I don't think modesty would be as big an issue if I didn't believe in God. However, I do, so it is a big issue (and proves shopping hard to do...)

And evil things are always regretful, because they reap bad consequences for most, even if there is no god.

Answer 6

could it is that Agnostics, Deists, Non-religious human beings have bigger expectancies of God than believers do? --I carry no expectancies for something. are not they actually giving God greater credit than somebody who thinks his religious textual content fabric has quite summed up God and defined God to a tee? --i'm no longer crediting 'God' for something, yet i'm totally attentive to the background of specific religious texts. Even to the factor the place they now quote from that textual content fabric with a view to coach they have have been given the "interior scoop" on precisely what God thinks approximately each thing and all and sundry? -No. Naturalism deals with the main achievable, no longer our very own options.

Answer 7

Since my personal belief system requires me to use my own moral compass, the lessons of my parents, and my own common sense...I would probably still behave the same.

However, I have seen this question before. And among the scarier answers I have seen from theists of the stronger-based faiths (otherwise known as fundamentalism) run along the lines of "Robbing, raping, drinking, using drugs".

So, while I may get a little snarky with fundamentalists of all varieties (from Christian to Atheist fundamentalists), I'm actually quite glad that stronger based faiths exist to keep people like that in line.

Answer 8

Even people who don't believe in God know right from wrong. There are things ingrained in us and it isn't by accident. Part of being a mature person is dealing with life and how you handle situations says a lot about your character not necessarily your sprititual beliefs. I strive to be a moral good person, it just happens that yes I believe in God, but I know plenty of good people who do the same things I do, without believing.

Answer 9

Ask yourself honestly, which came first: human law, or religion?

In other words, was our notion of God created around our laws and traditions, or were our laws created around our notion of God?

I'll give you an example: The 10 commandments. That's very clear evidence of a developing and more complex legal system than the age when "an eye for an eye" did just fine.

Answer 10

That question actually makes no sense. If God wasn't around, then neither would we. He is the creator and sustain-er of everything. Now if your question were to read "what if I had no Bible to tell me right from wrong?" then my answer would be that God gives each of us a conscience and we all know right from wrong. It's also important to know that the presence of a moral standard is proof of the existence of God. Morality is not relative, it does not change depending on the situation, although many would like it to. The presence of moral laws is evidence of a Lawgiver.