How can a person be an aetheist?

Question

Being an aetheist, how do you ever decide whats wrong and whats right.

What about your lost loved ones, dont you want to believe you will see them again?

Answer 1

To begin with, there are many methods by which one might determine what is "moral." Read Immanuel Kant who proposes a Universal Maxim, whereas you act according to the principle that whatever action you are performing you would wish would be a universal law. For example, if you steal, that is akin to saying that you think it's okay for everyone to steal. There is also John Stuart Mills' Greatest Happiness principle in which you act according to what will make the most people happy. These are just two of many examples.

Also think about this: Where does morality come from? If it comes from God, is God [A] the standard of goodness, or [B]does God recognize what is good and acts accordingly? If [A] then God can set any standard for goodness and you have to agree. This includes the sanctioning of murder (which Christians apparently are not usually troubled by). If [B] then a standard of morality exists seperate from God which means that even an atheist can be moral.

As for wanting to see dead loved ones again, I do all the time. They're called memories, and I see them in my dreams too. One should not pick hope as their criteria for believing in God and an afterlife. What you are proposing is a form of Pascal's Wager: You have nothing to lose by believing, so you might as well, right? Wrong. If you've never been exposed to other religious and/or non-religious ideas, accepting Pascal's Wager actually increases the odds that you are wrong in the beliefs you've accepted.

Answer 2

So you mean how they achieve this and "can" be this?
There might be several causes how he or she achieves that.
They might think that all what they use everyday, the air, their body, water, the law of gravity, food, sunlight etc etc etc was made by "nothing" and as they believe it was made by "nothing" they rightly must say that there was no Creator. Still nothing can made out of nothing. How do they achieve to ignore this simple fact? Mmmh? Have no clue.

The second point is different. Nobody was ever able to come really back from death, only many had similar "near death" experiences. To acceppt that one lives on after death, one must feel that one has an immortal part in ones body. With other words spirit or soul, something which has nothing to do with your earthly body, but uses the earthly body.
Some poeple indeed are not able to feel that there is something else than their intellect and earthly body. How do they do this and how can they do this? Just concentrate only and always on your intellect and ignore every little gut feeling, every hint of your inner voice, then you can achieve the same.

Then there is the group who sais to the last explanation that your inner gut feeling or unconscious mind is a collection of experiences made in ones life time.

So how about psychic abilites and feeling unknown things over a distance? I experienced that a few times, so I have no doubt, but some might had never experienced that and how do they achieve to ignore that other people in fact do experience that? This are the people they would reject just everything, even if the Star of Bethlehem would come again seen by many or an Angel would come down from heaven, this people would explain this with a mass hallizunation.

So this were some reason how people "can" be atheists, I am sure there are more capabilites how one can achieve this.

Answer 3

>>Being an aetheist, how do you ever decide whats wrong and whats right.

Umm, if it hurts me or someone else in some way, it's wrong. Pretty simple eh?

>>What about your lost loved ones, dont you want to believe you will see them again?

Denial is not just a river in Africa. Thinking you'll see them again is a crutch. You won't. Love them now with all your heart because who knows when you will no longer have the chance.

Answer 4

As an atheist, I did not derive my ethical beliefs from one source. Every experience I have ever had has shaped what I believe and how I live my life. Some influences include my parents, books I have read, people I have known, places I have visited, and yes, even the religion I was brought up in. For though I no longer believe in the spiritual or ritualistic aspects, I still took from it a sense of right and wrong.

And every atheist, just like every Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, has had different experiences that shape their personal code of ethics. We are all different.

For our loved ones who have past away, we miss them dearly. But we do not believe we will see them again, for a variety of reasons. I personally don't believe I will see them again because the evidence for it does not convince me. Not all atheists agree with that, but many do.

Knowing that we will never see our loved ones again gives us an appreciation for those who are still with us, as it does with any person who has experienced loss. Since I believe that this life is all that we have, it's important for me to cherish each moment. Life is quite amazing, and terrible, and everything in between.

I hope this has helped you to understand us a little. Yes we are humans, we do have feelings, and we are not amoral, bitter people trying to rain on everyone's parade :)

Answer 5

They assume so using fact they locate it incomprehensible to be able to make constructive selections with out being instructed to via a a techniques better authority. homicide is incorrect and the regulation tells me that via charging me for against the regulation, and if the regulation did no longer state so, nearly all of people (aetheists risk-free) nonetheless does no longer do it. My factor being people who decide you do no longer comprehend that all of us stay interior a similar society with the suitable comparable policies and those are what concerns maximum.

Answer 6

Easily, since there is not a shred of evidence to the contrary. The ultimate source of any moral system must be evolution, which applies to societies as well as to species: a society which lives by a sound moral code will survive preferably to one that does not. Hence, the proper test of morality is: how does this affect society as a whole?

It would be nice if there were some sort of afterlife, but this, too, is completely unsupported by evidence. Since any theory of the existence or non-existence of god is irrefutable, it follows (provably) that no theory of god can have any significance or utility in the real world.

Answer 7

Why do you need someone or something to tell you what's right or wrong? Can't you just use common sense?

I'm sad that I'll never see my dad again, but once I'm dead, that will be the end of consciousness, so it's not like I'm going to be in the ground worrying about it. I miss him, but not enough to make up a mythology just to give myself a false hope of seeing him again.

Answer 8

Easy! Discount religion. Don't believe in God/gods. What I'm trying to say is, don't try to think about it too much. It won't get you anywhere except angry.

The problem with us humans is that we DON'T KNOW. How can you prove that there is a god? How can you prove their isn't? To put blind faith in something is foolish, but you must put faith in something.

I'm not atheist, though. I am agnostic. I don't question the existence of God/gods. I question religion.

Answer 9

It's based off of ACTUALLY CARING ABOUT THE FUTURE LIVES OF PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU KNOW THEY PROBABLY WILL NOT LIVE FOR LONGER THAN 100 YEARS, AND THAT'S IT.



Why can't people just have morals for the sake of not causing harm?

Answer 10

I think you just try and see things from other people's viewpoint, with compassion and kindness, whatever their temperament lifestyle or beliefs, and act in their best interests at all times.