Atheists, Do you feel it is your moral obligation?

Question

After a lot of time spent on the religion area of yahoo answers, I have noticed several people really just trying to prove to people, with facts, and well thought out posts, that Christianity is very flawed and more or less a joke.

My question to you is, WHY do you spend much of your day on here disproving the beliefs of others? I;m sure you consider yourself moral, but is it moral to come on these boards solely for the purpose of harming others? (if only mentally/spiritually)

Personally, I am not Christian, or any other religion that I know the name/beliefs of. I think their might be a god, (tho odds are probably slim) and im not feeling the whole afterlife thing. Also, pure evil is a joke.

Religions are corrupted and used to manipulate people, but if it makes someone happy, and it helps them to be a better person , is that REALLY bad thing?

I understand that not ALL of ANYone are ANYthing, and tbh, the title may have just been to attract more people, that being aside, if you would please just answer the question rather than pointing out the flaws in my generalization.....TY.

Answer 1

Pointing out flaws in the inane beliefs of others enriches my existence while creating a safer and more rational world - and helps the person that I'm pointing these flaws out to. It's the opposite of harming them.

Of course I feel morally obligated.

Answer 2

I'm an agnostic, so perhaps I'm not the best person to answer this. In any case, this section is for discussing religion and spirituality - which an Atheist has every right to do. If you think every Atheist is here to harm, you are very, very wrong - they only wish to a) understand your views, and b) explain how someone can view differently and why.

And you're asking how something that manipulates can be bad if it makes people happy... is it REALLY making people happy? Living in fear of divine retribution? Turning against each other? Demeaning women? Using children for war? People can think they're happy because they don't know that there's a better way.

Why can't we be good and moral people without "Big Brother" looking over our shoulder? Be good for the sake of being good.

Answer 3

You and I share very similar views.

Why do religious people try to spread the word? They believe what they think is correct (and it may very well be) and they want others to believe the same as themselves. The same thing would be for an atheist, except that atheism is NOT a religion. The definition of religion is belief that relies only on faith, and has no factual basis.

Religion is fine. If you're a Christian, Buddhist, Jew, etc. As long as you understand that modern science can't be simply disregarded. A greater being(s) may have helped, but it's very difficult to believe the world was created 5,000 or so years ago. Carbon dating? Much more :)

Answer 4

Well, lets clear some terms out first. There are three types of people. Athiests, Thiests, and Diests. An Athiest believes there is no god, and that everything can or will be explained through science. (does this not make science their religion?)
Next is a Thiest. A Thiest is a person who believes in a god, and believes that god has a form. Jesus, Shiva, Bhudda, Buccas, it doesn't matter what the form is as long as it has a form. Most Thiests believe their god with a form has a plan, and many diests go out of their way to convert people to their religion, ( I've lived in the bible belt, four churches in four blocks... and a knock on the door every weekend.). Then there is the less popular Diest. It sounds like this is what you are. A diest believes there is SOMETHING out there but cannot put a form to it. Instead of thinking of their god as a form with a plan they tend to think of the diety more as a child with an ant farm looking in but not really interfearing too often. In my opinion there are more Diests then Theists, but since their diety doesn't have a form it is tough to talk about, and the very fact that they don't talk about a diety makes them harder to identify.

Answer 5

First of all, I spend very little time here these days.

"Harming others"? So, by giving my opinion, I'm harming them? Wow. So, if they're are victims by virtue of my disagreeing with them, then we atheists must be Supervictims!

Seriously, what makes airing their views to me less harmful than me airing my views to them?

As I watch the world being blown to bits all around me over someone's idea of a god, as I hear people say "we don't have to take care of the planet, Jesus is coming back!", as I see starving people in overpopulated areas being told they must not use condoms because it's a sin... you ask me if it's moral to disagree with the belief systems that have caused all of that and continue to do so?

It makes them happy? What kind of selfish **** is that? Every creature has in some way suffered because of religion. Your suggestion is that I let them just believe whatever makes them happy, even if those beliefs are causing behavior that makes other people unhappy?

It makes them a better person? How? How does it make you a better person to follow a book that says women are less than men (almost all major religions have a variation on that)? How about a book that says slavery is OK? Or a book that says you can "keep the virgins for yourselves" after ransacking a town in time of war?

If that poor excuse for morality, compassion, self esteem, and humanity in general can make people happy, or make them "better people", then I submit that those things can easily be accomplished without religion.

If you don't require facts and reason for that which you believe, or if you decide that faith is more important than reason, you are in effect opening your mind to *anything*, including the most horrible acts and the most heinous ideas. That is the danger of irrational thinking.

But hey... what's the big deal about that if it makes people feel all warm and fuzzy, right?

Answer 6

I live in the United States of America and religion is screwing up our politics. It is one thing for a person to have a private belief. It is another thing when a group of believers, in this case Christians, seek political dominion and use belief in the Bible and cultural issues to divide our nation and undermine secular institutions.

I do not spend a great deal of my day posting here on religion. I feel that atheists should contribute to the conversation and offer a rational alternative to religion. I am not motivated to destroy people's faiths. I am motivated to convince as many people as I can to embrace rationalism as our future as a nation and as world of human beings depends upon rationalism to solve our problems.

Answer 7

No.
I believe that religion is all
about feeling safe. If it allows someone
to feel safe knowing there is a god, and
that he listens to your prayers and causes
miracles, then that's fine. It's totally up to the
person. I don't believe in god, just like you, there
might be one, who knows, I highly doubt it though..
But if there is, I bet he'd be pretty pissed off seeing
as how his image, likeness and anything related
to him or her, are being used solely for the purpose
of making money and stuff. It's a really interesting
subject but as long as they feel safe knowing...
and not try to make me believe...it's fine!

Answer 8

in assessment to Christians, I is merely not assisting the bleeding previous guy because of the fact I concern punishment from God if i don't. i visit be assisting him because of the fact I pity him and experience in-born human compassion in direction of him. i visit help. As an atheist i'm not "loose" from ethical criminal accountability. I quite have the organic urge to help somebody who's in hassle, merely as any religious guy or woman does - basically my motives for doing it extremely is not in step with attractive a deity.

Answer 9

Religion is like a loaded gun. It can do good. But most likely something bad is going to happen.
Wouldn't you tell some one to put down the gun if you saw them playing with it?

Answer 10

if making people happy was the sole function of religion i would be the first to agree with you. but do you really think that it is? fundamentalist religionists intrude into politics and science, rallying huge numbers of people based on nothing but false certainty, and people like me are supposed to like it? no, i don't think so.