Does Atheism Lead to Immoral Behavior?

[PearlSeeker]

Which Kohlberg stage and level are you equating with 'external ethics'?

I meant the conventional stage.

 

[Valjean]

I meant the conventional stage.

Thanks, Useful.

 

[Colt]

I thought Christianity condemms hypocrisy... no?

Which hypocrisy are you talking about?

 

[muhammad_isa]

Please explain the harm you see in a daughter "taking the pill and having fun."..

..and that is when fornication became "fashionable" .. when the pill was discovered.
"free love" and what have you ..

Emotional health is important .. satan only wishes to deceive ..

 

[Colt]

Yes, but don't forget, it could just be that it is true that so many, many of the 18,000 or so deities worshipped by humans throughout our history have not existed -- and yours may very well be just another one of them.

Most all religions are valid approaches to God within the context of the cultures and evolutionary religious histories. Eventually evolved religions arrive at the realization that God is One. Jesus wasn't critical of existing religions, he envisioned his generic spiritual teachings as an infusion of truth into existing religions.

Finite beings have no choice but to conceptualize God or Gods. God responds to the faintest flicker of faith in ANY of us on earth inside or outside of ANY religion.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Which hypocrisy are you talking about?

- convincing someone to change their mind to a position you don't like is "evil."
- convincing someone to change their mind to a position you agree with is "good."

 

[Valjean]

..and that is when fornication became "fashionable" .. when the pill was discovered.
"free love" and what have you ..

Emotional health is important .. satan only wishes to deceive ..

I repeat my question.

 

[Colt]

- convincing someone to change their mind to a position you don't like is "evil."
- convincing someone to change their mind to a position you agree with is "good."

Convincing someone to reject faith in God and adopt the Atheist doctrines of death is ultimately evil.
God is the creator, this is his world, his will is the way to life eternal weather you like, believe accept or reject it.

 

[PearlSeeker]

I'd amend that to "deters some," at best.
Criminals tend to be impulsive. They're not known for careful risk-benefit assessment before they do their crimes.

"Opportunity makes a tief." (Francis Bacon)

There would certainly be more crime if there were no system regulations and crime prevention.

Opportunity Makes the Thief (Crime Prevention)

This idiom, "Opportunity Makes the Thief" is more true than one would initially realize. Opportunity does affect crime and is actually the key to prevention

alwin-co.com

"In the late twentieth century criminologists studied various factors that may influence a person's decision to commit a crime. These included the risk of arrest and punishment (deterrence), parental relations, peer pressure, education, brain function, body chemistry, substance abuse, and the availability of weapons.

Discouraging the choice of crime
The purpose of punishment is to discourage a person from committing a crime. Punishment is supposed to make criminal behavior less attractive and more risky. Imprisonment and loss of income is a major hardship to many people. Another way of influencing choice is to make crime more difficult or to reduce the opportunities. This can be as simple as better lighting, locking bars on auto steering wheels, the presence of guard dogs, or high technology improvements such as security systems and photographs on credit cards.

A person weighing the risks of crime considers factors like how many police officers are in sight where the crime will take place. Studies of New York City records between 1970 and 1999 showed that as the police force in the city grew, less crime was committed."

Source: Causes of Crime | Encyclopedia.com

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Convincing someone to reject faith in God and adopt the Atheist doctrines of death is ultimately evil.
God is the creator, this is his world, his will is the way to life eternal weather you like, believe accept or reject it.

... you assume.

 

[nPeace]

Huh?
Not following.

Well, you said... "One gains a conscience and moral judgement like one gains any other physical or psychological trait: by natural selection of adaptive traits over many generations."

ROFL! -- good one.

 

[nPeace]

What is the true sense of atheism, if I might ask?

When you say "there is no God".

 

[nPeace]

It's more likely to be the other way around. You're not going to learn to be moral in church. You'll be taught to be an atheophobe, homophobe, and misogynist. You'll learn love, mercy, and justice in terms of a deity that defines love in terms of a blood sacrifice, and who built a torture pit and staffed it with demons for the sole purpose of keeping souls that didn't guess right conscious to suffer to the benefit of nobody but sadists, and from which there is no appeal or parole. Sorry, but that's all immoral. Humanism has a completely different conceptions of all of those, and the results are encouraging.

Yes. The "churches" do teach a lot of immoral things.

Some people have little to no empathy or endogenous moral compass, either because of a pathology like antisocial personality disorder or from atrophy due to disuse if they imbibe an exogenous moral code and refer to it instead, which they are encouraged to do.

I guess there are a whole set of reasons.
Some don't know what is moral though, so they tend to judge on their flawed standards.

Jesus as depicted in the New Testament committed several moral errors. You wouldn't agree, because you are a believer, and such thinking isn't permitted. The believer simply will not let his mind wander into a place that he believes is blasphemous to an intolerant and harshly judgmental god that can read his mind. Here's a list of bad ideas from Jesus that I've compiled. I'm sure that you can come up with reasons why these are all great ideas, but I don't expect them to be more than unconvincing rationalization:

[1] Matt 5:28-32 - Jesus says marriage to a divorcee is adultery; and a man who ogles a woman has already committed adultery; and that you must cut off your hand or pluck out your eye if it offends.​

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[2] Matt 6:19-34 - Jesus says don't save money or plan ahead. "Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow shall take thought of the things for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."​

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[3] Matt 8:32 - Having no regard for private property, Jesus destroys a herd of someone else's pigs.​

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[4] Matt 10:34 - Jesus says he brings not peace on earth but "a sword": "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."​

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[5] Jesus divides families: Matthew 10:35-37 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes [shall][be] they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.​

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[6] Matt 19:12 - Jesus says the best way for a man to be sure of getting into heaven is to have himself castrated.​

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[7] Mark 11:13 - Jesus destroys a fig tree for not bearing figs out of season.​

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[8] Mark 14:4-7 - Jesus says it is more important to anoint him with precious ointment than to give to the poor, who will always be here.(Why not just get rid of poverty?)​

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[9] Christ categorically says in Mark 16:16 that he who believes and is baptized, shall be saved, while he who does not believe (in Christ and Christianity) shall be damned. That's pretty narcissistic.​

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[10] Mark 16:18 - Jesus says anyone who believes in him can play with venomous snakes or drink poison without harm.(This act has been often tried, with rather unsatisfactory results.)​

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[11] Luke 12:47-48 - Jesus fails to condemn whipping slaves.​

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[12] Luke 14:26 - Jesus says no man can be his disciple unless he hates his parents, siblings, wife, children, and himself as well: "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."​

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[13] Luke 19:27 - In telling a parable, Jesus insinuates that anyone who denies his rulership must be killed. "But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me."​

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[14] Luke 22:36 - Jesus wants us to have swords, too. He says to sell your clothes if necessary to buy one: "and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."-​

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[15] John 15:6 - Jesus says anyone who doesn't believe in him is fit to be burned.​

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[16] 2 John 1:10-11 - A Christian is forbidden to offer hospitality to a non-Christian, not even to wish him "Godspeed" on parting.​

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[17] James 4:4 - Christians are not to be friendly with the world: "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."​

The proverb "Wisdom is too high for a fool", is definitely true.

 

[Audie]

Men give themselves away when they "stand" at attention.
Women, they can blame the cold

I think you are on a different topic

 

[Polymath257]

..and that is when fornication became "fashionable" .. when the pill was discovered.
"free love" and what have you ..

No, the technical advance of the pill and other effective contraception allowed for more freedom.

After the invention of the automobile, traveling long distances became more fashionable.

Emotional health is important .. satan only wishes to deceive ..

Of course mental health is important. That is why all of those who condemn sexual activity should just mind their own business. It isn't the sex that causes mental health issues. It is the stigma produced by other people. Sex itself usually *helps* mental health by relieving stress.

Of course, while learning, it is eay to make mistakes, which is why sex education is so important. Condemnation only makes the mental health worse (for everyone, actually).

 

[Polymath257]

Convincing someone to reject faith in God and adopt the Atheist doctrines of death is ultimately evil.
God is the creator, this is his world, his will is the way to life eternal weather you like, believe accept or reject it.

Convincing someone to think for themselves and not take things on faith is a good thing. Atheism is not a doctrine of death. It is a doctrine of responsibility and thought.

In fact, it is usually the religious that worship death, divisiveness, and destruction.

Until you show there is a creator, the rest is just talk with no substance.

 

[Aupmanyav]

It is easy to justify one's personal morals but I'd like you to consider the world at large. Is the world becoming more moral or less moral?

And, does this have anything to do with the decline of religious belief?

IMHO, world has become less moral with the decline of religion, but ..
Atheism has not added to the immorality of the world. Don't blame atheism for it.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Other than going to jail, what stops you?

Nothing stops him. Don't you realize that he is an atheist. That is the normal behavior of an atheist.

Finite beings have no choice but to conceptualize God or Gods.

They have the option of becoming atheists.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Please explain the harm you see in a daughter "taking the pill and having fun." Could it be that it offends your enculturated sense of propriety?

I think it will distract them and with whom they have fun from their main purpose of life at that point of time, viz, studies. There may be medical and emotional issues. "Take the pill and have fun" continued after marriage will weaken the marriage ties and result in divorces, creating problems for children.

 

[muhammad_isa]

Of course mental health is important. That is why all of those who condemn sexual activity should just mind their own business..

..except when one wants to MAKE it the business of the police .. naturally.

If you were a policeman, you would know that, of course.