How are atheists not nihilists?

Question

To start off, this isn't an inflammatory, rhetorical question that intends to start a verbal assault from the atheists, agnostics, etc. on Y!A. That being said...

Atheists are people who don't believe in god(s), and, therefore, don't believe in any kind of "heaven." So, if atheists don't believe in any kind of final reward for a life of good or punishment for a life of evil, how can they have any motivation to be good and productive for the good of humankind?

Why don't they just kill, rape, be gluttons, and indulge in whatever instinctive and primitive pleasures they choose if they don't think there will be any consequences?

Please just answer the question. Don't bring up anything about how religion has caused wars, is the scourge of the World, etc.

Answer 1

People do what they feel like doing. If they don't kill, rape, be gluttons, etc., it's because they don't feel like doing those things. Fear is the main ingredient, I think. Without God, there is still the law. Gluttony is still unhealthful. So there are earthly consequences.

Honest atheism always leads to nihilism and honest nihilism always leads to suicide.

Answer 2

Atheists don't need the fear of a place (hell) or the anticipation of a reward (heaven) in the afterlife as motivations to be good. For me personally the idea of Heaven and the idea of hell seems cowardly and selfish..why not just act kind out of genuine care and compassion for other humans instead of anticipation for a reward or fear of punishment? The simple facts that we have only one life, and a limited time on earth and that others lives will be affected by our actions, is reason enough for us to live well. there is no reward or punishment, but I can die happy knowing that my actions while on earth allowed others to live happily...


Let me ask you a question? Do you think that if others where to lose their source of morality(the bible?) it would cause them to revert to these "primitive pleasures" that you speak of?

Answer 3

Nihilism is a philosophical position which argues that the world, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Atheists bassically are nihilists... what does that have to do with raping, killing and blah blah blah? Why didn't you ask What stops atheists from doing blah or blah? Anyways, I digress. To answer what it seems you meant to ask, atheists live good lives because they want to, they don't need any reward to be a good person. Why do religious people rape and kill? Atheists are actually some of the best people out there.

Answer 4

It`s the only life I got bro. Do you think that raping and killing people would make me happy? I don`t find peoples suffering or prison to be a good thing.In fact I find both to be quite repulsive. Why be a prick might be a better question. I think that people are naturally good. Evil acts are out of the norm. Working together and co-existing peacefully is instilled in us. Look at animals, does`t the pack work together to eat? Do bears unnecessarily kill other bears? No, well we are animals.

Answer 5

Most atheists believe morality is an integral part of human nature. The concept can indeed be found in all human cultures, regardless of their metaphysical beliefs. Although there is quite a wide range of things different people from different cultures consider moral, there are a few basic tenets (laws against murder, incest, etc...) which are common to all human communities. So most atheists tend to believe morality is simply part of human nature and are content to leave it at that.

Answer 6

I am an athiest, and my reason for not destroying the world is that my four children have to live in what I leave behind. :)

Answer 7

Your question prompts several related reponses.

First, if it takes both the promise of eternal bliss and the threat of eternal torture to get us to be nice to other people, then our nice behavior can't be characterized as moral.

If a man spent his days visiting the sick and imprisoned simply because he cares about other people, most people would consider him good.

But if nothing but the promise of a bilion dollars and the threat of years of torture could motivate the visits, we would not consider this man good at all. We would feel rightly cynical about a fellow who needed such extreme bribes and threats just to do something nice.

To assume that only heaven and hell could prompt people to behave morally is to assume that moral motivations don't exist among human beings. This, I think, comes uncomfortably close to moral nihilism.

Second, the vast majority of human beings are not naturally sociopathic.

When family members risk their lives to protect more vulnerable family members, it is familial love that motivates them, not the prospect of a heaven.

When fire fighters risk their lives to help strangers, it isn't because of the high pay, let alone the prospect of heaven.

When everybody in America started being a little nicer to each other (for a little while) after the 9/11 tragedy, it wasn't because they all converted to a religion that promised them eternal reward for doing so.

Most people are not basically good (or evil), but we are basically social. The vast majority of us have people and communities that we care deeply about. A few of us are born evil. A few of us are born saints. Most of us are about as good--or as evil--as the family members, friends, or communities that we hold most dear.

Third, everyone has intense desires that the prevalence of moral behavior fulfills. We don't want to be murdered. We don't want be robbed. We don't want our good names ruined by false witness. We don't want to lose our rightful places in our marital and familial relationships.

Most importantly, we want our kids not to kill each other, or steal from each other, tell vicious lies about each other, and so on.

Anyone who has ever spent years listening to parents speak to their children knows that parents spend literally hundreds of hours instituting and refining rules of conduct.

Which brings us to the real reason why people are moral. It's because their parents raise them to be. That way, parents don't go crazy.

I don't doubt that the first moral pronouncements were commands given by parents to children, later expanded to commands given to clans by their patriarchs, and so on.

Fourth, Heaven and Hell are not the only possible consequences of consistently immoral behavior. In this life, people who kill and rape often wind up not only in jail, but out of their circle of family and friends. People who are gluttonous die of heart attacks and strokes. There are physical reasons for the latter and social reasons for the former that have nothing to do with anything supernatural.

Not everyone pays for their sins in the here and now, but we human beings are in no position to demand a perfect universe.

Fifth: Although you did not mention Christianity specifically, you should be aware that the god who rewards good behavior with Heaven and punishes bad behavior with Hell is not the Christian God.

According to conservative Christian theologies--and even some moderate Christian theologies--our fates after death are determined by our beliefs and our respective relationships with God--NOT by our good and bad behavior.

St. Augustine, for example, started life as a pagan libertine. But he never had to pay for his sins. Christ forgave him, and the Church made him a saint, after he embraced Christianity.

This is not to say that moral behavior plays no role in salvation--good behavior is both a sign and a product of a good relationship with God.

However, conservative readings of Christianity do imply that a human being who disbelieves in the existence of God will go to Hell even if said human being lived the gentlest and most righteous life imaginable.

Conversely, under this theology, a person who spent his life in giving in to debauched and vicious impulses until he converted to the True Faith one month before his death has nonetheless made it to Heaven.

This brings us to another motivation for atheists to be moral: their sins can't be conveniently washed away. When they sin, they are accountable to the people they have wronged--not to a deity who forgives them no matter what they do.

Why, then, should Christians be moral?

Jim G.

Answer 8

God isn't the only thing it's possible to believe in.