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The motivation to do good, and stay away from evil. The idea that a person if being watched. You can never get that with atheism. Atheism is just ruthless "sur

The motivation to do good, and stay away from evil. The idea that a person if being watched. You can never get that with atheism. Atheism is just ruthless "survival of the fittest", when push comes to shove.

hota_mazi 5y ago
You think that doing good only because you are being watched is a good value to have? IF yes, then please, by all means, continue believing in your god if that's all that keeps you from raping and killing people. Atheists do good because it's the right thing to do. You seem to do it because you are afraid of getting punished.
- tapas73 5y ago
  > Atheists do good because it's the right thing to do. Or is remnant from religious generation? (parents programm kids that doing good is right thing to do because God says so. Certain generation starts omitting "God says so" part)
- truetraveller 5y ago
  >You think that doing good only because you are being watched Never said "only because" of being watched. Being watched is an added measure. > Atheists do good because it's the right thing to do Many atheists, from personal experience, most don't really care to do good when no one's watching. Not saying it applies to all atheists, but for many. It's simply not rational. Why do good? For "karma"? So, the atheist has replaced "God" for "karma"?
  - jhgb 5y ago
    Human psyche is not rational. Reason takes work that most are not willing to invest in most of the time, regarding most things. Not even scientists, whose job is to be rational about things, live their lives fully rationally, or even "50+% rationally". Yes, it's not rational to feel good when doing good things for someone. Yet, most people do feel good when doing good things for someone. It's called empathy. And while that feeling is not rational, it is very handy. I don't see how you could have humanity as we know it without it. Whatever the reason for its existence, I'm glad that it exists. Who knows, maybe that's just the anthropic principle in action here? Maybe without it, you really wouldn't have humanity to wonder about it.
  - hota_mazi 5y ago
    We do good because it feels good to do good, but also because evolution allowed us to develop empathy. We feel a natural need to help other people because we hope that other people would help us if we needed it to. "Today, you. Tomorrow me". We hold the door to strangers, help them carry stuff, or pick them up they have a flat tire, and none of that requires the existence of a vengeful god who will send us into a lake of eternal fire if we don't comply to his wishes. We help each other because we are a social species. We do it because most people on this planet are good people who want to be happy and who want people around them to be happy. Religion and gods are unnecessary for any of this.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
jhgb 5y ago
> The motivation to do good, and stay away from evil. The idea that a person if being watched. You're describing sociopathy.
- dang 5y ago
  Please do not take HN threads further into flamewar. It's not what HN is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
smackeyacky 5y ago
This is 100% wrong.
- truetraveller 5y ago
  IMHO, this is a specious statement. [Edited to remove flamewar].
  - smackeyacky 5y ago
    You made the assertion that "being good" requires religious faith. This is demonstrably not true. Is that better? I would make the assertion that a religious person who is only "being good" because they are afraid of divine punishment is a good working definition of a sociopath.
dang 5y ago
Please do not take HN threads further into religious flamewar. It's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

hota_mazi 5y ago

You think that doing good only because you are being watched is a good value to have? IF yes, then please, by all means, continue believing in your god if that's all that keeps you from raping and killing people. Atheists do good because it's the right thing to do. You seem to do it because you are afraid of getting punished.

tapas73 5y ago
> Atheists do good because it's the right thing to do. Or is remnant from religious generation? (parents programm kids that doing good is right thing to do because God says so. Certain generation starts omitting "God says so" part)
truetraveller 5y ago
>You think that doing good only because you are being watched Never said "only because" of being watched. Being watched is an added measure. > Atheists do good because it's the right thing to do Many atheists, from personal experience, most don't really care to do good when no one's watching. Not saying it applies to all atheists, but for many. It's simply not rational. Why do good? For "karma"? So, the atheist has replaced "God" for "karma"?
- jhgb 5y ago
  Human psyche is not rational. Reason takes work that most are not willing to invest in most of the time, regarding most things. Not even scientists, whose job is to be rational about things, live their lives fully rationally, or even "50+% rationally". Yes, it's not rational to feel good when doing good things for someone. Yet, most people do feel good when doing good things for someone. It's called empathy. And while that feeling is not rational, it is very handy. I don't see how you could have humanity as we know it without it. Whatever the reason for its existence, I'm glad that it exists. Who knows, maybe that's just the anthropic principle in action here? Maybe without it, you really wouldn't have humanity to wonder about it.
- hota_mazi 5y ago
  We do good because it feels good to do good, but also because evolution allowed us to develop empathy. We feel a natural need to help other people because we hope that other people would help us if we needed it to. "Today, you. Tomorrow me". We hold the door to strangers, help them carry stuff, or pick them up they have a flat tire, and none of that requires the existence of a vengeful god who will send us into a lake of eternal fire if we don't comply to his wishes. We help each other because we are a social species. We do it because most people on this planet are good people who want to be happy and who want people around them to be happy. Religion and gods are unnecessary for any of this.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

jhgb 5y ago

> The motivation to do good, and stay away from evil. The idea that a person if being watched. You're describing sociopathy.

dang 5y ago
Please do not take HN threads further into flamewar. It's not what HN is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

smackeyacky 5y ago

This is 100% wrong.

truetraveller 5y ago
IMHO, this is a specious statement. [Edited to remove flamewar].
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  You made the assertion that "being good" requires religious faith. This is demonstrably not true. Is that better? I would make the assertion that a religious person who is only "being good" because they are afraid of divine punishment is a good working definition of a sociopath.

dang 5y ago

Please do not take HN threads further into religious flamewar. It's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html