This is a survey for people who think religion is illogical and don't believe that anything exists in any form except for matter and energy (except for vacuums), also known as atheists. It's not for Buddhists however.
3: Do you believe it's always a bad thing to lie? If not, in what instances do you believe it is good?
Again this is only a survey for atheists. Also if you are not an atheist please don't vote on the answers, as I want to see which answers most atheists approve of.
2007-08-02 03:00:49 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
1. Yes I do.
2. Because I have seen no reason to doubt that certain things are absolutely true and others are absolutely false.
3. I don't think that it's always wrong to lie, but typically, yes it is. I value honesty quite highly, as should be obvious from my comments on this forum. I think that it would almost certainly be right to lie to protect the innocent from harm, for example those who hid Jews from the Nazis during WWII. There are probably thousands of other examples of that, and at least hundreds of other categories of "ethical lying".
I agree word-for-word with Tawaen (below).
No offense, but your definition of "atheist" is wrong. An atheist is someone who does not believe in gods. Atheism does not imply anything about whether or not the person thinks that religion is logical, or believes in things other than matter, energy and vacuum.
In addition, I suspect that you might be conflating two different notions here. Your first two questions are about truth, while the third is about morality. Did you mean to ask us if we believe in absolute morals rather than absolute truths?
2007-08-02 03:04:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 0⤋
1 and 2. Some things can be taken as absolutely true. We don't normally debate those things because they are very clear. The Sun is very massive, fusion powered, and the Earth orbits about it. That is absolutely true. Well, almost. The Sun and Earth orbit their common center of gravity, but that point is beneath the surface of the Sun.
Some things are generally true, but not absolutely. It is generally true that if you jump out of an airplane at 10,000 feet over land, you can count on dying. Oddly enough, there are exceptions, two so far that I have read of.
3. No, it is not always a bad thing to lie. Example: If your wife asks you, "Is she prettier than me?", the only correct answer is "not even close", even though "she" is a knockout that is far more attractive than your wife. What you have just done in this case is lie to your wife, and it was absolutely the right thing to do. If you don't believe me, try the truth in that scenario some time.
2007-08-02 03:14:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
1&2 yes because be some things are absolutely true such as 2+2 in base 10 = 4 or the earth revolves around the Sun or that the earth is not Flat.
3) no its not always a bad thing to lie. Something not being bad does not make it good.
2007-08-02 03:08:09 · answer #3 · answered by John C 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
1) I do not believe in absolute truth. 2) I like what was said on a Star Trek episode: "There can be no justice in a universe of absolutes." There are many gray areas in why people do things. It is the intent of the heart, not the law. Even the law allows for the mental state or the age of individuals as a justification for what a person does. 3) Even your bible has an example of where God told Abraham to lie. When he entered Egyp God told Abraham to say his wife was his sister so Pharoh would not kill him for her.
2007-08-02 03:10:27 · answer #4 · answered by quidproquo888 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I consider the concept of absolute truth to be entirely useless. Technically anything that we might know to be 'true' is based on a number of assumptions, and even if those assumptions are as seemingly insignificant as assuming that you're not hallucinating, they still mean that no truth can really be described as absolute. Except one's own existence, as demonstrated by one's ability to think, of course.
Of course it's not always bad to lie. What if you're planning a surprise party? Or hiding Jews from the Nazis?
2007-08-02 03:14:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I can't tell I'm an 100% atheist. But it's definitely a bad thing to lie. But if telling the truth causes a very negative impact on anything good then, I'd rather lie.
BTW, I don't know what you meant by "absolute truth"
2007-08-02 03:06:07 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
Well, I'm a good Christian girl, but I just KNEW you'd want me to chime in, darlin!
1. Yes, I believe in absolute truth. I believe in lots of absolutes! Absolute creepiness, for example!
2. I see absolutes every day. You, for instance, are the perfect example of several absolutes.
3. No, it's not always a bad thing to lie. If a very creepy boy you know is going to blame his parents and every female he ever met for all of his problems, I know that Jesus would want me to lie and say "I would love to go to Prom with you, but I have to visit my Uncle that night!!!" Ha ha! (backs away slowly)
2007-08-04 06:29:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
There can never be any absolute truth, because what is true to you, might not be true to someone else. It has to be taken in perspective.
Yes I do think it is never a good idea to lie.
However, lying can be done for many different reasons.
For eg. A man runs past me all beat up and bloody and goes north, another man follows behind several minutes, wielding a knife, asks me if I seen a man run by, and which way did he go. Do I tell him? Or do I not tell him?
Sometimes circumstances plays a big part.
2007-08-02 03:15:04 · answer #8 · answered by Sapere Aude 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
1) No
2) Truths are relative to the individual. There are no absolute truths other than the physical laws that govern life on this planet and in this universe (i.e. gravity, etc.)
3) Lying is a bad thing however there are gray areas where partial lies or half truths are used to protect people in certain circumstances.
2007-08-02 03:08:30 · answer #9 · answered by ndmagicman 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
1. Yes, it's called objective reality.
2. Because even if we all have a different perception of an event or occurence, there is only one thing that actually happened. We may or may not be able to agree on what happened due to our different perspectives, but the event is outside of our perception, it is objective.
3. Lies are a necessity for human society to function. Without them, we would not be able to maintain our comfortable self-esteem bubble and live in groups. We would be forced to live alone or forced to accept reality. And humans are notoriously bad at accepting anything but what they want to hear.
2007-08-02 03:07:28 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋