There are also plenty of good people in places with religions that have afterlives but not hell or any threat of eternal punishment.
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SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
I always hate that argument. Why be a decent human without the threat of eternal damnation? I mean that threat doesn’t seem to stop a vast number of religious people from being unbelievably cruel to their fellow humans, so…
TheDoozer@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Religion doesn’t stop a bad person from being evil. It can convince a bad person they’re still good (better!) when they do evil.
And good people don’t need religion to do good. But it can make them overlook the evil of other religious people and protect them, making them bad.
The best-case scenario is that religion can have no effect on how good or bad someone is. Good people stay good despite religion, not because of it.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 1 month ago
The main issue is that religion is something that makes you feel better when you have emotional pain, like a loved one dying. Like any painkiller, it has a purpose and if you abuse it you can deaden your response to actual issues that need your attention.
Originally Christianity was mostly about helping the poor, sick, dying, etc. That genuinely makes you feel better about yourself. Judaism has a lot of references to remaining strong in the face of adversity. Religions are just mental tools. What you do with that tool is up to you. If you hurt other people, it’s your fault.
TheDoozer@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Please don’t misunderstand. I was not saying that that was the be-all-end-all of religion. I wasn’t speaking against religion in general, just in regards to the irony of suggesting that religion makes people more good. At all.
shield_gengar@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I don’t. It tells you, in clear language, the type of person that this “loving Christian” is. They literally can’t imagine altruism, and that says more about them than what they think they’re saying about me.
dudinax@programming.dev 1 month ago
That kind of person is revealing an innate sense of right and wrong that’s independent of their teachings. You should fear the Christian who’s envious of your disbelief in hell.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
It also tells you they only care for the Christian tribal identity, not the actual teachings of Christ.
To be Christian is to be like Christ, not… whatever the hell these people think they are.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Yep. Even though I’m not an atheist, I still don’t understand this argument. I’m a good person (or at least try to be) for the sake of being a good person, because I don’t need to be threathened with eternal damnation in order to not murder people.
magic_lobster_party@kbin.run 1 month ago
If anything, it just used as justification for bad behavior. “My genocide is completely justified. It’s what God wanted!”
SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
About a month ago there was a Christian philosopher making exactly this argument, perhaps not realizing how absolutely psychotic he sounded like.
nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee 1 month ago
wtf this guy is still around?! I watching some cringy debate video with him vs Christopher Hitchens (RIP) or someone like 15 years ago when I was an edgy teenager and YouTube was new (shit it’s actually like 20 years ago fml)