Get Over Your Fear of Atheism

Wow, never new I was a false premise Maybe I don't even exist! I've never done good deeds because I believed God told me too. And I had a very christian upbringing. When I was young, I did good because my parents told me too, and I couldn't watch TV if I didn't. Now I do good because it's the right thing to do. I want to increase the amount of good in this world, I believe good is right, and I think that one of the best ways to help make this world a better place is to do good works. That doesn't seem to follow at all. I don't think all of us have righteousness in us. But I do think that a lot of us do. Perhaps even most. That is, I don't think it's an innate sense, but that most of us have learnt righteousness. I also think it's not easy to monitor that righteousness and act in an appropriate manner. This leads us to many people ignoring it, or acting poorly. Which, of course, leaves our world in the mess it is today.Of course, this doesn't mean there aren't those who have learnt righteousness, and monitor it and act accordingly. They just seem to end up in a minority most of the time. Or perhaps, just not very vocal.I do agree, though, that if everyone had this righteousness and acted upon it correctly, the world would not be in this mess. Yet, being in this mess hardly means that no one is a good person, or that "we all choose to do wrong".

But, if goodness isn't good enough on Judgement Day. Then whoever's doing the judging isn't good.

Heh. I don't think morality is at all "natural". I think it's learnt. That is, when each of us were born (neglecting any brain abnormalities) we had the exact same potential to be the most moral people in history.I'm sure some people get a bit of an advantage in certain maturing environments. Yet, we all have the ability to learn and change into any level of morality we would like to attain. If you can imagine being "that good", then you are capable of it. Of course, you're also capable of all the temptations you can imagine, too That's nice. Like I said, if being good isn't good enough, then this God doing the judging isn't good. And therefore isn't worth following, or accepting anything from. If only he'd have gone to kindergarten and learnt to share...

I really don't see my life as an atheist as different from any general life. I go to work every day. I pay my bills. I try to be a good person. I screw up. I repent for screwing up.I think about the things everyone thinks about. I think about the things theist's think about. It just seems to me, for the most part, I can replace the word "God" for "good" and any theistical thoughts or ideals transfer very neatly over to an atheistical viewpoint.I don't know if I can pinpoint a day or time when I actually stopped believing in God. I grew up in a Catholic household. There was definitely a time when I believe in God. And now I definitely do not. I do remember a few specific epiphanies along the way. But I don't remember any sense of loss, or real gain, either. Just more of an "oh, yes, this makes more sense". And moving on.Being an atheist really isn't that big of a part of my life. Althought I do like to discuss it here

Yes, I can see how this could be cause for concern. But only in a very limited, extremely narrow view.An atheist does not have the burden of worrying about what God thinks. Yet they certainly have the burden of worrying about what their respected peers/friends/family members/loved ones think. Or even about what they themselves will think.This certainly does cause the exact same guilt, worry, and obligations.Not being able to open one's view and see this equality of moral motives is what actually causes concern from me.This would tell us that the problem of holding the view that atheists can "do whatever the hell they want", isn't with theism and atheism, but more with the narrow and stifling framework that such an idea came from.How could someone possibly believe that their God is the only source of goodwill, when there are millions of people who are living, physical proof against this? Or even the billions of people who believe that some other God is the source, and they too live extremely good lives each and every day?

Of course it is. That's my entire point, that this line of thinking, this whole entire idea, is a strawman. I was replying to: Which is, of course, a strawman. Thank-you for so explicitly pointing it out. I agree. Which also proves my point (and yours) that the statement I took from mike the wiz's post was a strawman. I don't even think he meant it in the way I took it. But, as you've so graciously explained, in and of itself it certainly is a strawman....strawman...Just thought that maybe we needed to use the buzzwords, or something

I, uh... don't know if you're joking around, or insulting me If you want to talk about something, it would help if you were a bit more specific.I understand that these last few posts were confusing. I took a certain point from your post out of context and dealt with it on it's own... GDR did the same thing with one of my points... are you now doing the same thing to complete the circle? Again, if there's anything you feel I mis-represented, let's talk about it. If not, and you're just having fun... uh... *high fives*