If the Atheists' standard for good is "themselves".......?

Question

....How there be harmony? How CAN there be peace?

OK.

If the Atheists' standard for good is "themselves", how CAN there be harmony? How CAN there be peace?

now KIMBO gets the point!

John
"Who says their standard for good is themselves?"

Wher have YOU been?

Come back in about 20 minutes and ask this question:
Atheist: Where do you get your morals from?

bren,
problem is for you; you've deluted yourself into believing that THAT is the will of "God". That's in honor of a god but not "God". Your in the same trap as thos poor fellows.

gamer, Would you grandmother agree with that?

Answer 1

That made no sense. Could you reword it more coherently?
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That still made very little sense. The entire first sentence was a presumptuous generalization. The next two are vague pseudo questions.

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Ok since you referenced Kimbo- "but they have 121545424313613 different atheists in the world who all have different view on what is right? "

What do the two of you expect? I do get one thing now. Clearly neither of you understand what an atheist is or what the word means. Of course every atheist can have a different view on what is right.

The one commonality that atheists share is a lack of belief in deities. That's it. It isn't some homogeneous group or organization. This is why your generalization makes no sense at all.

Answer 2

The history of the world, including our current century, is proof enough that peace and harmony are not possible through the use of religion.

Harmony and peace comes from an entire group adopting ONE social contract. (Look up that term some time).

This is not difficult to understand. Animals do the same thing. They know that they need each other to survive. Therefore they work together, in packs, hives, prides, whatever you want to call it.

What religion do you think causes an ant colony to work together?

It is the same with humanity. And you can see this for yourself, if you just want to look at the history of Christianity.

Obviously, Christianity has changed over the centuries. Very few Christians today, other than the Westboro folks, perhaps, actually follow THE WORD OF GOD as it is written in the bible.

Why is that?

Did "god" change his mind?

Of course not. Men changed their own minds. And they have changed their interpretation of "god's word" accordingly.

The pope regularly changes church doctrine, as the times change. This is the way of the social contract.

And that won't change when religion goes away.

And I know you don't want to hear this... but uh... religion IS going away. You may be lucky enough to see it happen within your lifetime.

Answer 3

All right.

So, most people, at some point of their lives (unless they are so entwined with a particular Church that they are blind to everything else), will question their faith, and possibley explore other religions. Maybe read up on Christianity, Wicca, Buddhism, etc.

So, we look through all these religions and think, "Hmm...not, that doesn't seem right." or "No way, I could never believe that" or "I could not allow myself to follow this doctrine"

What are we doing here? We already have preset beliefs and we are trying to find the doctrine or religion that matches them!

So, since we already have a good ide of what our morals are, why not cut out the middle man, or "God"?

If we know what our morals are, surely we can hold ourselves to them!

Answer 4

It has recently been discovered by various individuals who I prefer not to mention that people who believe themselves to have high morals standards are MORE likely to do unethical things, usually because they know how to justify those beliefs towards serving a greater good. Having religion to fall back on probably facilitiates this process almost as much as the Christian belief that just because you believe in GOD and atheists don't that you are morally superior to atheists.

Answer 5

My standard for good, is myself. How would I like to be treated? How would I like to be respected. How would I like to live in peace. And YOU question how can there be peace?

There can not be peace as long as people say, the standard of good is that everyone does as I say and what I want, REGARDLESS of the others feelings.

Answer 6

Funny.. ever since religion came about we have had anything but peace.

And I will put my moral standards up against a Christians any day of the week. My morals are stronger. Because your morals depend on the existence of a God, mine do not. My morals exist whether or not God does. My morals are completely independent and impervious. Yours aren't.

The idea that I have to believe in some invisible man in order to know right from wrong is ridiculous. There are many non-religious foundations for morality. Check them out sometime.

Oh, and if I used your God as a standard for morals, I would end up stoning 90% of the people I know to death for various 'sins.' And you think this is more moral than the mantra of 'do unto others..?'

/agnostic

Answer 7

Because WE understand personal responsibility and don't just blow off everything we say or do as "god will forgive if we ask him".

I'd rather the world be a nice one to live in, how about you? Atheists realize the logic behind "be good to others so they'll be good to you".

Religion isn't exactly known for any notion of "peace".

Answer 8

Well, I don't know. I can't quite understand your question. But, 'themselves' is better than religion. Look at all that it's done. And is still doing. I'd say it's time to try something else. Something that might work.

Answer 9

Can YOU control more than YOURSELF? I try to make as much out of life as I can. I don't believe that anyone can make another better. Regardless of what they believe. I can only be as good a person as I can be.

Answer 10

There is a lot of peace within myself. It's not like I change my own rules all the time and my life is crazy.