How can people remain good w/o the constant threat of Heaven and Hell?

Question

68 answer WOW

Answer 1

the desire to appeal to and get along with other human beings
we are social creatures u know
...most of us are anyway

Answer 2

I think a better question, given that every course of action in a lot of situations can be shown to land you in hell, is how people can remain good people despite the fact that they're being told they're going to hell and there's nothing they can do about it.

The problem with the rules that get you to heaven and hell, is that they're one-size-fits-all zero tolerance stuff, and land you in a lot of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situations. It's the people that say "well, I'm screwed, but what's the right thing to do so that I can at least help the people around me" that are worthwhile.

Once a person gets to be close to 30, rewards like heaven and punishments like hell, and other stuff that we have no control over that happens or doesn't with no real rhyme or reason to them, stop really mattering at all. Just get a little older and experience it for yourself.

edit: *drink*

Answer 3

I don't need or want a promise of heaven or threat of hell. I try to do good and help others because it is the right thing to do. Even after being taken advantage of fairly often. Yes, I am a Christian, but my belief does not require a heaven promise or hell threat.

Answer 4

It might help if you explain how the threat of Heaven or Hell makes people behave? How does that work? Do you ask yourself constantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week "WWJD?" Do you have to habitually remind yourself of hell to keep from acting on some criminal urge? If you don't, if being "good" comes more naturally than that for you, then you might begin to understand how non-believers manage to behave as well.

Answer 5

Well, here's my side of the story.

I believe in God. I believe there's a heaven and a hell, or rather, a place of joy and a place of hatred where a soul may go after the death of the physical body.

However, this does not make me behave well. In complete honesty i'm a sinful mess of an individual. A threat of eternal pain or eternal happiness doesn't mean anything to a sinner - because if they sin for long enough, they forget how to feel anyway.

Answer 6

Morals were not invented by religions, they simply take credit for them. In fact, the morality in many "holy" books leaves much to be desired. If a human was responsible for even a small portion of the violence attributed to many gods, that human would be considered a monster.

* * *
Why Christians Must Steal From Secular Morality:
http://www.caseagainstfaith.com/submissions/steal_morality.htm
[Excerpt]

Christians must steal their moral rules from secular morality. They have no choice, as the Bible does not offer a moral system, it only offers a series of contradictory commands and a supposed threat of punishment in the "afterlife" for not following them - a punishment that is given equally to all violators - whatever the sin.

The Bible does nothing and can do nothing towards inculcating moral behavior on its own. Christians must steal from secular moral systems, and then merely graft their 'God threats' on top of this moral system. This is necessary. And the reason for this is simple: there is no morality in the Bible and there can be no morality in the Bible, because the Bible holds that 1) ALL 'sins' are equivalent (destroying any moral sense) AND 2) all moral behavior is immaterial, because works cannot save a person, AND finally all people are damned from birth.

In reality, Christians realize that some actions are more moral than others. They realize that moral actions exist in a hierarchy, and that rape is far worse than stealing a pencil. Yet the Bible holds that all 'sins' are equal, as all deserve the same punishment.

Christians also realize that humans can be moral agents... they expect moral behavior from others, and they view their own children as something to value. Yet the Bible holds that man is worthless, that he cannot be a moral agent, and that his sole salvation comes from grace. However, since Christians realize, implicitly, that all of these these points are obviously, prima facie false, they must steal from secular systems, that hold that 1) man obviously has a value 2) all 'sins' are obviously not equivalent and 3) a person cannot be held to be doing anything 'immoral' without intent.

* * *

Origins of the 10 commandments:
http://www.atheistalliance.org/outreach/news-2002_spring.php
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/ten_commandments.htm

Morality Without God:
http://www.atheists.org/Atheism/cohen.html

Ethics Without Gods:
http://www.atheists.org/Atheism/ethics.html

Morals Without Gods:
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=sharris_26_3

Evolution of Altruism:
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/~strone01/altruism.html

If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/27/AR2007052701056.html?nav=rss_print/asection

The Subtle, Lethal Poison of Religion:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2007/09/hitchens_1.html

How Can an Atheist Be Moral?
For Goodness Sake
http://www.ffrf.org/about/bybarker/goodness.php

Answer 7

Some people, like me, live on their own morals. They believe in people, not a god or heaven or hell. They believe that when people do the right thing, the world is a better place, so they strive to be the best they can be. They don't have to wait for their ultimate reward until their death - they can see it everyday in the faces of people they've helped.

Answer 8

I doubt very much if the heaven exists today at all. Some of the people whom I knew personally had gone there. And I know for sure that they turned the heaven into hell already. Those guys are capable of turning even hell into something much more worse.

Answer 9

Dude it's almost 2008 its time to get real you don't honestly believe that there is some divine spirit living in the clouds that takes good ppl and an evil 1 in the earth that burns bad 1ns do you? These were just methods of control for a dumber human race that walked the planet a few thousand years ago when things like the police and army wernt there to control the masses . We aren't even a grain of sand in our universe let alone the most important things in it (how arrogant are we?) Just enjoy life to its full. Remember what you were doing just before you were conceived? (NO) we'll thats what you'll be doing when you die

Answer 10

By being a good human being. I personally choose not to believe in those threats of heaven and hell yet I do good things for the sake of doing good things. It makes me feel like a better human being.

Answer 11

I believe and hope in my heart this is true. People will be good just to be good. I hope all people get a joy out of helping their other fellow humans. What do people get out of being cruel and uncaring? I believe there is more good in the world whether or not there is a heaven and hell.