Why don't Atheists realize?

Question

I am not going to speak for all the people who believe in God, but will the Atheists please understand that I don't try to be "good" for fear of punishment or for a reward of Heaven. Do you respect and love your parents? That is how I feel toward God. I respect and love Him and I don't want to disappoint Him. You don't believe in Him? Great! But because I do, don't take my "morals" as fake. And please don't call me a hypocrit when I do wrong things or if I slip up. I am only human like you.

Bad Squirrel...no! I don't think only Christians have morals!

Armund..point taken. I don't mean all Atheists. Sorry.

Answer 1

Thank you AJM. Nicely said. As you conclude, we are only human. And consequently we have far more in common than we have differences.

I recognise the people you are referring to and quite understand. Just as I imagine you will recognise the people I have issues with.

Peace be with you.
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Answer 2

Quite a few Christians on this forum have stated that atheists must not have any morals, because the only reason for having morals is to get into heaven. When we accuse these people of having fake morals, that is what we are talking about. If you've got genuine morals, good for you. I don't think anyone here has a problem with that.

Answer 3

Well that is fine, but you have to understand that Christians ask us like 10-20 times a day how we could be moral and an atheist. You must admit that those that ask that question certainly look like the only reason they are moral is fear.

And nothing personal, because you are right that people slip up. But guys like Haggard are hypocrites and we see a whole lot of that sort of thing. More examples: Catholic Priests, Jimmy Baker, etc.... Doesn't mean that any other individual is one, but it does seem systemic in Christians.

Answer 4

Atheists say that because there has been countless people on this forum who have made comments like "if atheists don't believe in God, then why would they even care about doing the right thing?" or "why would atheists care about morals if they think this life is all they've got?". It leads many people, including myself, to believe that there's a lot of people on this forum who are only moral because they've got an afterlife reward in mind. If you don't fall into that category, then great, but there are a lot of people here who do, even though they probably wouldn't admit it.

Answer 5

Thank you for saying that. As an atheist, especially when I get caught up in questions directed against us, it's easy to generalize all Christians as "acting good only for fear of punishment for for a reward or heaven." But that's as prejudiced, ignorant, and small-minded as the people who say atheists have no morals.

I think sometimes, atheists are directing that point ONLY at people whose morals work that way, without meaning to imply that ALL Christians work that way. If somebody asks me, "If you don't believe in Heaven or Hell, what keeps you from sinning?", of course I'm going to say, "well at least I'm not being good just to get into Heaven or stay out of Hell!" But you have an excellent point-- I really ought to add, "many Christians act morally independent of Heaven and Hell."

Answer 6

Preaching and not following make you a hypocrite, that's the definition. If you don't want to be called it stop doing it. That's like a murderer saying don't call me a murderer. You are human, and a hypocrite. Get over it. But don't worry its OK to be a hypocrite in your religion. I truth is I don't think you do good or not bad things because of God. I believe "many" good morals are a integral part of human nature, that many cultures have attributed to god. However there are things associated with your holy book that are not, but since many people believe what they have read in the book they think everything in it is correct.

Answer 7

As sincere as that sounds and I'm sure the feeling is as well, what point would there be in worshiping a god for no reward? Seriously, think about that.

If god said "I'm putting you here on the earth to live for a few decades if you're lucky, in decent conditions if you're lucky and then it's all over. I could do more but that's all I'm doing. As far as the ones who aren't as lucky, the majority around the world who will die early from disease or starvation, like the 8000 children who die daily (yes, daily) in Africa, or the ones abused by parents and other adults, the ones born without limbs, the billions who live below the poverty level... well that's sad but I'm not doing anything more for them or you. No afterlife, no reward for doing what I tell you to, but I love you."

If god said that, you would still worship him ?

I can comprehend you being a good person if you got no reward but why worship?

Answer 8

Allah isn't an identical God that us Christians worship (he's not even a real god). you notice, in Sura 4:171, it says: “Allah is purely one God; some distance be It from His glory that He could have a son.” there are various, MANY verses interior the Bible which tells us that God has a Son, Jesus Christ. indexed under are some: "Simon Peter responded, 'you are the Christ,[a] the Son of the residing God.' Jesus spoke back, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this replaced into not revealed to you by using guy, yet by using my Father in heaven.'" - Matthew sixteen:sixteen-17 "For God so enjoyed the international that he gave his one and basically Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish yet have everlasting existence." - John 3:sixteen

Answer 9

No, I do realize that theists have different reasons for being theists, just as we atheists have our own different reasons for being atheists. I try my best not to jump to conclusions.

Never the less, keep in mind that there are a lot of theists who try pushing Pascal's Wager and other arguments like that here in order to proselytize, which can easily give the impression that they ARE motivated by fear of punishment. It's easy to mistake a minority for a majority when the minority is very loud.

Answer 10

You sound like a really nice young person and God will bless you. Try not to worry so much about what others think of you, especially on this website, most don't have a tender heart toward God and just mock things that are Godly. The words hypocrite and judgemental fly around here like bats, don't take it to heart. All you need to do is concern yourself with what you have with Christ. God Bless, child of God.

Answer 11

No one thinks that all religious people do good out of fear of punishment. When we discuss that issue, it's usually in response to someone asking us why we have morals, and why we don't just go out and rape, steal, and kill-- because if we don't believe in God, "anything goes." We respond that that's a ridiculous question, and then ask them if they are only doing good because of fear of punishment, and not because their truly good people. I actually had someone TELL me that they would be out there raping, stealing, and killing if it wasn't for fear of God's punishment, and then THEY proceeded to tell ME that I was going to hell for not believing. In that case, I DO say that his morals are fake. It doesn't mean, though, that I think EVERY religious person's morals are fake.