Confessions of an anxious Athiest.

[MookJong]

That begs the question though, who is more moral? The man who is good because he's afraid of the consequences, or the man who is good because he feels it's the right thing to do? I get that the two aren't mutually exclusive but you shouldn't need to hold eternal torment over people's heads to get them to act in a moral way.

Quite often religious people will suggest that atheists will be more likely to commit crime because there is no higher power (bar society) for them to answer to. For me that's missing the point entirely.

No you are missing the point!!!

From a material perspective morality doesn't exist, there is only the genetic and environmental factors that control a persons actions. The choice to be good or bad is not a choice at all.

 

[Horse Pop]

I take the Hakuna Matata approach.

I don't really think human beings can truly grasp this "not existing" thing on a basic level, so why try?

I do worry about dying but that's mostly because I like my life and want more time with my wife.

 

[ethan]

Thanks, exactly my thoughts.

Yes but there are qualitative and unquantifiable aspects to a genuine relationship you are simply ignoring. The purely biological explanation you seem to prefer is like saying that the television you were watching last night is just simply electrical signals. You are ignoring the normative and psychosociological aspects along with many other things. There is no one single definition of love for a start . There is also a conceptional level to love. The bits we add to it to make it work. Simple it certainly isn't.

 

[[Damien]]

No you are missing the point!!!

From a material perspective morality doesn't exist, there is only the genetic and environmental factors that control a persons actions. The choice to be good or bad is not a choice at all.

I don't see how my point disagrees with yours.

The point I was making is that you don't need religion to be a good person, and that someone who is good because they fear punishment in the afterlife is less moral than someone who is good because they believe in being good to better themselves and the society around them.

I also said that those two aren't mutually exclusive though, as I'm sure there are religious people who are good for the sake of being good, and non-religious people who are only good because they fear society's punishments.

I know that there's no such thing as 'good' or 'bad' as entities in themselves but I meant what most people mean by that, as in actions that are in line with what most people would call 'good' and not things like stabbing random people in the face for fun.

We could get into the discussion of 'is there really such a thing as free will' but that's a whole other existential argument.