Is it possible that the reason so many Christians can't understand how athiests can be good people?

Question

Because they themselves are so utterly devoid of conscience that they need Morality to function in society? Or at least give the appearance of being functional members of the society they prey on?

Your lips to Whom It May Concern's Ears, Night Owl.

Answer 1

Nope. I think it's just because they are faithful to their beliefs, and anyone who does not believe is going to hell...and therefore, are not good people.

It's interesting to read the responses here, though. Especially those that say Christians don't believe that. Apparently, they haven't been reading posts in this forum for very long.

Morality is based in ethics, and I don't believe that Christians are devoid of ethics...but I do believe they are susceptable to ethical lapses based on their religious beliefs.

Answer 2

I am a Christian and I believe that atheists can be good and moral people. Christians are not any more devoid of a conscience than anyone else and I am sure that we all functioned well in society before we became Christians and continue to do so afterwards. What I would like to know is this, who do you thank for the morals that you adhere to? Government? They got it from the Bible. Your teachers? Our public education system was begun by Christians and, until recently, usually run by them too. Your parents? Were they atheist or did they hold to a higher power? What about there parents? The truth of the matter is that a moral code goes against the basic laws of evolution and survival of the fittest. In the animal world it is basically a kill or be killed society with no regard to the value of the being you are killing (other than the value they have by filling your stomach). So, rather than hating the religious, you should be thanking us for the moral codes that you live by. I assure that you didn't come up with them on your own!

Answer 3

I suppose in an answer to a question such as this one, it's probably a good idea to sort of self-identify, so that you know where I am coming from. I believe in a Divine Creator. I call "Him" "God" because that's a concept most people can readily relate to, but the thing I believe in is actually more elemental and harder to pin down than that. If you took all of my spiritual beliefs and pinned them on a board, you'd find that I most closely identify with Christianity, but you'd also find that that, too, is not quite right and a bit harder to pin down.

I think there's a lot to be said for your premise, and I find it disheartening that it is so. I don't know why so many people have to operate strictly on the reward/punishment model of organized religions when ethics and morality are so ridiculously easy to develop on your own. I started not worrying so much about what God thought of my behavior around the time I started experimenting with eyeliner, and by the time I was learning to drive a car, I had pretty much given up worrying about it at all. My thinking then, and now, was that I have a mind, and thus I should use it. It doesn't take strict adherence to the Ten Commandments to realize that we all get along better together on this planet when we respect the rights of others, and don't steal from them or lie to them, etc. It's just plain, old-fashioned logic that tells me that's a better way to live.

I always want to scream when I see someone sporting one of those WWJD (What would Jesus do?) bracelets or t-shirts. Are people really so dense that they need to look to Jesus to decide whether or not they should steal a book or key someone's car in a parking lot? Can they not figure out on their own how they should behave? I know that there are people who will say that I, having been raised both Christian and religious during my formative years, have simply internalized what Jesus would do and choose my actions accordingly. That's hilarious. Did the works of Jesus, as described in the New Testament have an impact on who I am today? Yes, they did. But in my case it would be just as useful to ask "What would Marcus Aurelius do?" or "What would Dr. Freud do?", as they have also, through their writings, had a significant impact on who I am today. In fact, when I consider my character, and how it was formed, I see that my religious upbringing had far less impact on who I am today than my own explorations in the secular realm. Well, my own explorations filtered through the logic of my mind, actually.

So yes, I think what you say is quite possibly true in many cases, but in my experience, I would not limit it to Christians. I would say it is a danger for those who follow any organized system of belief which operates on the idea of rewards for good behavior and punishments for bad behavior. Any time someone surrenders their power to think and to choose for themselves, they enter a strange kind of oblivion, in my opinion, for they have surrendered two of the great joys of being human, and two of the things which separate us from the other animals on this planet: will and self-determination. I, for one, am not willing to surrender them so easily.

Answer 4

You know I don't think that is a fair statement to a Christian or an Atheists. I am a Christian and I believe there are a lot of good Atheists. I have friends that are Atheists. I have a great respect them, they are very intelligent people, (well most of them) and I have learned a lot from them. In turn they show me that same respect. Just because we have a difference in belief does not in any way make them a bad person, or myself as far as that goes. I have a deep hurt for them because of the way they believe, but hold them in high regard. I pray for them, even though they don't want me to, because I care a lot about them, and I would like nothing more then to think we could all spend eternity together, but I also respect them enough to accept their choice in where they spend eternity. Maybe I'll rub off on them before its too late, I sure hope so.
And maybe some of them will rub off on you and show you how to have respect for others and will one of you guys teach her/him to spell.

Answer 5

I believe that to be a blatant truth, that most Christians tune out their true opinions of people based on whether or not that person believes in God.

Of the group of professors I hold amongst my close friends, whom I spend time with at and away from the University, two of them are devout Christians and one of them is a Muslim. The Muslim and I tolerate each other, but while I don't make my Atheism clearly known to everyone, he constantly spouts drivel about Islam. He's a good guy, I suppose. We talk and get along all right, but I can tell he thinks less of me because I am an Atheist.

The two Christians, I'm more fond of. One of them is Catholic, and refers to me as an "Atheistic-Saint", and I respect him and his beliefs as such. The other is a Baptist, and tends to not make known his opinion of me.

Out of those three men, the Catholic is the one I respect the most, because he respects me. He's unique among Christians, and his open-mindedness doesn't go unappreciated by me or the others of us who don't believe in God.

Most Christians now who spout on about salvation and openly attack Atheists without provocation are Evangelical, fundy, ignoramuses, and insist that if you don't believe in God, then you're a bad person. They ignore their true interpretations of a person in exchange for what the BIble supposedly says.

Answer 6

No, that's not at all it. I don't think atheist are bad people. Mislead, too factual, not thinking clearly: yes. But not bad.

Let me answer your question with an illustration. If I have a problem and need advise, I'm not going to ask an atheist because I know I'll get an answer that has no Christian background. It may be good advise but I'm going to ask for Christian advise, first, because, as far as I'm concerned, that's the best advise. That's kinda how Christians categorize Atheist. We just disagree on a fundamental level.

Answer 7

Wow madpol, and to think I thought you were pretty well balanced in life. LOL

You are wrong, completely, without a doubt. Not all Christians are alike just as all atheists are not alike too. I am a Christian and I know you do not have to believe in God to be good. I just know you wont go to heaven if you do not believe in Jesus Christ. But why is that a problem if you are an atheist? I mean if you are indeed an atheist, then you do not believe in heaven anyway, so why pick on Christians?

Why do you lump all Christians in one pile? You can not do that to any other class of people out there, nor should you do it to Christians. I think you have to rephrase your question, Kemosabe.

Answer 8

Atheist place is often extra often than not a count number of agnosticism: if there's a god, he would not do something in any respect that variations everyone's existence (no longer solutions prayers, would not intervene in human affair, etc.). even nonetheless, in case you enable for the distant danger that there may be a god, the theists are everywhere proclaiming which you DO have self assurance in god, yet are hypocritical approximately it and yadda yadda yadda. extra suitable state that there isn't any longer god and carry enterprise on that place, inquiring for data till now showing a willingness to alter perspectives. properly, it somewhat is with regard to the comparable with alien existence. The universe is extensive, and the possibility that there is existence accessible is extremely intense. yet furnish that, and alien-heads are everywhere claiming that the government has secret contacts with them, that they be attentive to somebody who replace into contacted/abducted/anal-probed or although. although if one facilitates the main advantageous estimates of danger of existence on alien planets, danger of existence turning out smart, and danger of intelligence turning to technologies (something we regardless of each little thing have been doing for extremely a century out of a minimum of one / 4 million years of human existence) the closest alien civilization may be a number of thousand gentle years away. And the possibility they ever got here right it somewhat is a huge fat 0.

Answer 9

Huh? Christians devoid of conscience? Whatever happened to Christian guilt? How can you have guilt without a conscience? There's something screwy going with this question...

Answer 10

I'm a Christian and I believe that atheists can be good people. There are some atheists though, just like anyone else including Christians, that are bad people. It doesn't matter what you believe in, you can still be a good person. There will always be people though that aren't good, like murderers and rapists etc. and I bet some of those people are religious too.