Do atheists have more to be proud of if they live their lives as good people?

Question

I mean, we live good lives and contribute to society not because we’re afraid of hell or because we want to go to heaven, we do it because that’s simply the way we are. Doesn’t that mean that atheists can hold their heads a little higher than believers who need to be threatened with punishment and promised a reward to be good?

Answer 1

Of course there is ...... we are good people because we choose our way to be good people and not because it is under the command of imaginary creature / creatures who are prone to violating their own code of honour. It is definitely more difficult and more responsible to our own action then those who claim they walk the difficult path of pushing their own wrongdoing to an imaginary son of an imaginary creature and claims the reason they do the wrongdoing is because of an imaginary scapegoat created by the imaginary creature .....

Well, you get the idea. :D

Answer 2

Christianity is not about doing good works in order to earn your way into heaven. If it were, there would be no such thing as Christianity and the entire story of Jesus Christ would be non-existent. We should all do good works, anyway, as one person said, because it feels good. It isn't about saying, I have 2,567 good works and only 1,200 bad works and the good outweigh the bad so I am generally a good person and should go to heaven.

Christianity is more like dealing with a disease that kills and needed a cure. In this case, a spiritual disease that kills and needs a cure. There are those who believe it and those who don't.

Answer 3

I am a Christian and I consider myself a good person. I was at one time an agnostic and was a good person then--at least most of the time.

I try to be a good person not because of any threat of hell or punishment, but because I believe it is the right way to live and I believe that is fundamentally what Jesus teaches us. Christians are saved not by being good people--we can't be good enough to be saved on our own merits. We are saved by the blood and sacrifice of Christ.

Jesus purchased our freedom from our sins. We are forgiven if we accept Christ and are baptized and are otherwise obedient.

I am proud of you for your goodness and because you want to be a good person. These are qualities I would hope would be found in all Christians. But being good to stay out of hell isn't what Christianity is all about.

Thank you for a very good and relevant question. I hope my answer is of an appropriate quality.

Answer 4

My infants are so screwed up, my eldest graduated HS with a three.ninety seven GPA and faculty credit already finished. and he or she's on no account had a cost ticket, on no account been busted for something, and has had an identical boyfriend for 5 years now. the two infants are so tousled they think of that human beings who happen to college stoned and/or below the effect of alcohol are stupid - nevertheless son thinks they're additionally hilarious, in a glance on the dumbass style of way. he's likewise so tousled he's getting sturdy grades and has an invaluable lady chum. Yep - they're debauched in each single place...

Answer 5

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Matt. 19:7

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. Psalm 14:1

Nobody is good because we always break the ten commandments. We are all lawbreakers. Period.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

In order for us to be allowed entrance to heaven we must repent for our sin or breaking of the ten commandments. All humans are liars, theives, blasphmeres, adulters, murders, idolitars, covetars etc.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Rev 21:8

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15

The perfect example of repentance is found in Psalm 51.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3

When we repent and in doing so plead with God to save us we become what the bible refers to born again. We are spiritually born again. Read your bible every day and obey it.

Answer 6

That's a very good point. Think of it as two little kids. One is promised candy if he's good, so he acts good. The other is not, and yet still acts good because its the right thing to do. It makes sense to me that the kid who isn't being bribed to be good is a more ethical person.

Answer 7

Entirely.
Not to sound cliche but - you raise an interessting point.
I don't do what I do or help others just to get into heaven. Atheists live their life for this life - not for the afterlife, or any rewards.

Answer 8

Being kind and charitable is a product of our evolution as a social species (one can find altrusitic behavior in any social species) and is hard wired into our brains, which produce pleasurable endorphins every time one behaves in a charitable way.

Answer 9

Pride goes before a fall. Just be happy. Theists make a point of looking down their noses at people who disagree with them, and look how hard they fall when they go.

Answer 10

A little bit, on the inside, maybe. However, athiest should be careful not to get too full of themselves (like certain religious people)