Why do Atheists Bother?

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Red_Tory

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2010
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Well, because humans and mosquitos (not that I like to kill anything) are two different things. If you honestly can't work out why killing someone is wrong without the bible, then maybe you need it to keep you in check mate... No, I decide my morals by using my head.
Ok, so what's the actual reasoning process you undertake to arrive at the conclusion "killing someone is wrong," and what does that even mean in light of your statement that there is no objective morality?
 
Mar 28, 2014
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I think the terminology is confusing you, and I think you're assuming that because Percepi and I accept that all things are chemicals, that such a view somehow requires us to place absolutely no value on concepts like morality or law. That's not the case. If there wasn't a case for morality from our views, we wouldn't bother making one -- we wouldn't be moral men.
how would the terminology confuse me....I believe God spoke the world into existence.... you are assuming that I am assuming that...you are contending that in your head by a chemical reaction you can come up with morality on your own similar to everyone else......that could be so if it is written in our DNA and if so its not us but natures course...by plan not chance...


Just because I am made up of chemicals (which every piece of matter in the entire universe is, including you and everything around you) doesn't mean I think we should just murder and rape and say ''Oh well, we're chemicals''. That's such a ridiculous notion. Why would I even want to kill, rape and pillage? What does it benefit me? What does it benefit anyone else?
you keep implying that I think you are a murderer or rapist...not so...you are attributing your morality to a chemical reaction in your brain...I contend as we are born we are exposed to the morals of the world both good and bad man chooses whatever he desires...


You'll probably reply something like ''Well, why does it even matter if we're just chemicals''. I can think of a thousand reasons why it matters, but I suppose, given the tone of your replies thus far, that is a question you'll just have to answer for yourself. You're made up entirely of chemicals, too, just like Pecepi and I. Why don't you go around raping, killing and pillaging?
I know why it matters ...because we are not "just chemicals" we are living beings capable of thought and reason and therefore responsible for our actions....
 
Dec 18, 2013
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Double standards. It's okay for you to morally equate atheism with tyrannical, genocidal totalitarianism (the Chinese gov't/Stalinist Russian governments were athiests) and unfair for someone to equate far-right anti-Semitic Nationalism (Hitler was an exaggerater of Lutheran anti-Semitism) with Christianity, then you infer Marxism (different in many, many ways to Stalinism or Leninism or Chinese totalitarianism) is 'bad' and atheist, therefore atheism is bad.

Come on, man.
I never said the atheists were all tyrannical or that tyranny is specific only to atheists. That's what you said. I said the communists are atheists. Atheism is a central tenet of communism. The early CCP and USSR governments were indeed atheistic and their goal to establish a borderless, classless, stateless, and atheistic society. You have to consider Marxism because Marxism is the foundation of Communism, literally Karl Marx invented communism as we know it for which Leninism, Maosim, etc. all are based from. Mind you we don't have to worry too much about them in our time given that they either had to morph or be consigned to history's scrapheap before you and I were born.

Hitler wasn't an atheist, Hitler weren't a Christian either. The Nazis were massively New Ager pagans that is very well documented if it was not outwardly apparant enough. Just look at their old footage with them carrying around swastikas and even the SS runes on their jackets. Lol probably my favorite story is how the highest rank nazi captured during the war, Rudolf Hess (the same whom Hitler dictated Mein Kampf to), was even captured cause he was a little too far into that astrology bunk. This is all well documented stuff, it ain't no secret.

If you want to fairly examine the subject of Christianity and Empire just look at your own nation, Britain. That be a fair equivalency as the British monarch has thought themself head of the Church of England for the past few centuries running. British history is full of intriguing stuff really, not all of it pretty either.
 
Mar 28, 2014
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Well, because humans and mosquitos (not that I like to kill anything) are two different things. If you honestly can't work out why killing someone is wrong without the bible, then maybe you need it to keep you in check mate.
I asked this question based on one creating their own morals....not because I can't work it out...seems like you don't have a answer...

I don't follow morals because someone tells me to, I don't consider something right and wrong because somebody has told me it is. That's called deontology, and it doesn't require thought, just obedience, like a soldier following orders, willing to do whatever his master tells him, nomatter how bloody, violent or horrible it is. No, I decide my morals by using my head.
and so we are back to the human and the mosquito...if one day your morals decide a human is no more than a mosquito...

There's no objective morality. What you see as morals having unchanging objective worth is really you accepting what other people tell you is 'right' or 'wrong' because it is considered normative or traditional or whatever, but I don't give my moral values worth based on what worth others have given them. At one point it was traditional to stone your wife to death if she was unfaithful, now it's repulsive. There's an example of something that used to have moral value, no longer having moral value.
the stoning is not the morality in question...it is the unfaithfulness ...you contend that the punishment is morality ...not so...the faithfulness and unfaithfulness still hold their moral values of right and wrong today.......even if the punishment may have changed...
 

Dan_473

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2014
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How did you get that from what I wrote? What beliefs do you think I maintained?
From previous posts of yours, I had the impression that you believed in free will... did I misunderstand you? Also, it sounded like you believed in a fixed morality (thus you could say that [stereotype bad person] was wrong, and talking about the issue was just plain silly. Again, did I understand?
 

Dan_473

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Mar 11, 2014
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Yes, because the particles make up who we are.

If a man murders another person, one can argue that "it's not his fault, it's the chemicals and particles that are at fault!" Well, the man IS those chemicals and particles. That's like punching someone in the face and saying, "It wasn't me, it was my fist."
cool! And that word 'fault'... if my car doesn't start, and it turns out to be the battery, I could say that battery's at fault. I wouldn't say the battery was evil, or that it had commited a moral breach... it just acts as the chemicals and particles dictate... If one person murders another, is it the same kind of fault that the battery has?
 

Dan_473

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2014
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It always seems to me the Christian looks at the end compartmentalized from the means. No, I wouldn't have the operation. In suffering comes empathy, which leads to a desire to help others who suffer. Without the ability to suffer and empathize with suffering, there'd be no reason to live. Hunger is a form of suffering. Without hunger, a man will rarely if ever eat. We'd all die.
So, it sounds like tranquility isn't always a better state of mind than suffering.

So, if we all die, how is that bad? Or would you say there are other aspects to morality than 'to help suffering'?
 
Sep 30, 2014
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The point is, the author of that Psalm wished revenge and in his belief that God thought like him stated that those dashed the bodies of Babylonian infants against the rocks would win God's blessing. These are the words of men, not God.
It's hard for me to make since of this as well... but I think why ? One answer could be they were born of corrupted seed, " sons of God, daughters of men ". What Goliath was, " the DNA " was corrupted by fallen angels Cycel
 

nl

Senior Member
Jun 26, 2011
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The context of Psalm 137:8 shows that the expression of Psalm 137:9 would be recompense for a wrong that had already be done.

Psalms are in the literary genre of poetry and should be interpreted accordingly. We can look for figurative meanings and are less dependent upon literal interpretations.

A similar sentiment to Psalm 137:9 is found in Psalm 2 with Psalm 1 and 2 being foundational in the Book of Psalms.

Psalm 2:8-9 is pretty clearly a Messianic prophecy concerning the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and also speaks about "dashing in pieces" as harsh as that seems. In this case, the "Blessed" One doing the vindication is none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

"Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like potters’ ware." (Psalm 2:8-9)

Jesus Christ came the first time as a Suffering Servant and Savior-Redeemer. Jesus will come the second time as Messiah the Prince, the King of Kings and even as a military conqueror.

+++

Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me! - Psalm 66:20
 
Sep 14, 2014
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I am not sure if you and Percipi share the same views so it is a bit difficult for me to respond to you ...since you are responding to a post which is a response to him...he believes morality is a concept that occurs naturally...as a result of chemical reaction...I contend that cannot be so ...else man cannot be held responsible or his actions.....not only that but every person will have their own set of morals.....I am also lots of things other than ''just chemicals'' I am a living soul, filled with God's spirit....and that cannot be attributed to any known chemicals...
So if something happened tomorrow that totally disproved the existence of god... Would you suddenly turn into a robbing murdering rapist?

No, you would not.
 
K

Kerry

Guest
So if something happened tomorrow that totally disproved the existence of god... Would you suddenly turn into a robbing murdering rapist?

No, you would not.
No but I would rob banks, but then again why not? If there is no God and no one to be accountable to then shoot rob, steal and kill. Why not?

But I know better and a thief is a thief is a thief. A thief will rob a train, but an educated thief will steal the train company and do it legally, why because the believe their is no God. Many company's have been stolen legally because they have no morals and where do morals come from Evolution I guess if there is no God. I Meant is man inherently good and if so where did we inherit from, I meant we used to hide in bushes and kill the next thing that walked by to have for supper.
 
Oct 30, 2014
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So, it sounds like tranquility isn't always a better state of mind than suffering.

So, if we all die, how is that bad? Or would you say there are other aspects to morality than 'to help suffering'?
Helping suffering by alleviating hunger by giving food is not the same thing as removing the human ability to suffer at all. Relate the means and the end together, because compartmentalization gives you false correlations of the ends being equally justifiable regardless of the means. That's what I'm saying.

The desire not to suffer unconsensually is innate in all of us. Nobody wants to hunger unless they have decided they will. Nobody wants to be whipped with a bull-whip unless that's your thing.

As for 'how can all of us dying be bad', well, I for one have a desire to survive! Don't you?
 
Oct 30, 2014
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Ok, so what's the actual reasoning process you undertake to arrive at the conclusion "killing someone is wrong," and what does that even mean in light of your statement that there is no objective morality?
Do you want to suffer unconsensually? That is, would you think it a lovely occurence for someone to come in your house, rape your wife and murder you and your family? I wouldn't, so why would I want to do that to anyone else?
 
Mar 28, 2014
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So if something happened tomorrow that totally disproved the existence of god... Would you suddenly turn into a robbing murdering rapist?

No, you would not.
by your own admission nothing has totally disproved the existence of God....why doesn't everyone suddenly turn into a God fearing, God loving person...
 
Sep 14, 2014
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by your own admission nothing has totally disproved the existence of God....why doesn't everyone suddenly turn into a God fearing, God loving person...
Nothing has totally disproven Zeus, Odin, Wotan or Thor either. Shall we follow them too?
 
Mar 28, 2014
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Nothing has totally disproven Zeus, Odin, Wotan or Thor either. Shall we follow them too?
by all means if they call you...or you call and they answer...
Acts 17:30
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
 

Dan_473

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2014
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So if something happened tomorrow that totally disproved the existence of god... Would you suddenly turn into a robbing murdering rapist?

No, you would not.
(Speaking for myself,) I wouldn't change right off, but if I thought that it would lead to greater overall happiness, I would begin to develop anti-social behaviors...

Also, without a fixed morality, robbery, murder, rape are only wrong if you think they are...
 
Sep 14, 2014
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(Speaking for myself,) I wouldn't change right off, but if I thought that it would lead to greater overall happiness, I would begin to develop anti-social behaviors...

Also, without a fixed morality, robbery, murder, rape are only wrong if you think they are...
There are many reason I don't take part in such activities. In some case its empathy for the victims or the children they leave behind, in other cases I don't want a criminal record or I don't want to spend a life in jail.. I'd much rather spend it with my family.

I don't see how god comes into any of that.
 
Oct 30, 2014
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No but I would rob banks, but then again why not? If there is no God and no one to be accountable to then shoot rob, steal and kill. Why not?
That should be pretty obvious. If you can't answer that question without God, you probably need God to keep you in check.

But I know better and a thief is a thief is a thief. A thief will rob a train, but an educated thief will steal the train company and do it legally, why because the believe their is no God. Many company's have been stolen legally because they have no morals and where do morals come from Evolution I guess if there is no God. I Meant is man inherently good and if so where did we inherit from, I meant we used to hide in bushes and kill the next thing that walked by to have for supper.
Lots of company owners and embezzlers and stock market cheats are Christians, Kerry. Legallytaking a company through certain less-upright means isn't theft, but it is immoral. You assert the lawmaker (God) gives man moral purpose. God is the one who appoints authority (as per bible). If that's so, then how can taking a company legally ever be immoral, from a Christian perspective?

I can answer that question in various ways from my perspective, though.
 

Jimbone

Senior Member
Aug 22, 2014
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There are many reason I don't take part in such activities. In some case its empathy for the victims or the children they leave behind, in other cases I don't want a criminal record or I don't want to spend a life in jail.. I'd much rather spend it with my family.

I don't see how god comes into any of that.
Of course you don't, how could you when you don't even believe He exist?