Bored at work, Ask an Atheist

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Russell_SA said:
Some but not all. Everyone has their reasons for following a path. Just that this one comes across as any other reason to follow a message along with the access to channel powers. To be a conduit for the supernatural to work through. Except every time we attempt to justify that these people can do this, it comes across as no difference than random chance.
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Doesn’t it all come down to wanting to believe and not wanting to believe ?
 
Techno2000 said:
Doesn’t it all come down to wanting to believe and not wanting to believe ?
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I don’t believe that belief is a choice. I use belief as the result once sufficient evidence is presented to someone. It’s a conclusion to data, once data is presented. I don’t have a choice to believe that I am sitting in a chair. I may tell people that I am not sitting in a chair, but I’d be lying to them and I’d know it. I see people applying the use of faith as close to the idea of hope. They hope that this will be the case. That’s fine. I hope people will do right by each other, but that hope is grounded in that I have seen people do this. Just sometimes maybe not enough for reasons that they alone justify to themselves. What ever people’s reason’s are for picking the better choice in a difficult situation, then that’s fine for me. It’s your actions that I care about more than the reason’s behind them. If someone treats me with genuine respect because they want to or are told to, but I can’t tell a difference, then it doesn’t matter to me their reasons.
 
RebeccaJ said:
Not everyone, by every measure. It is impossible for humans to reach perfection on their own, so yes, I agree that attempting to achieve perfection alone is a worthy effort, but unattainable. People are by and large, indifferent. Bad stuff happens to “other people”. But we’re ok by every measure.

Nature vs nurture. I agree people are born destined for good. While also having a nature that is attracted away from good. The nurturing one receives in family and society plays a part, but nature cannot be discounted.
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Perfection is a subjective term because it’s a comparative description. Perfect compared to what? Your perfection for society would be different from mine and the person sitting next to you in the pew. That’s why I believe have to settle on good enough and attempt to maintain that. Just every sacred idea must be open to questioning and not assumed to be left out of that conversation for the idea of “good enough” as well as taking into account how we actually behave instead of how we wish we would. Someone may have a good idea for the betterment of society, but if they don’t take into account factors of human nature, we will not apply that idea correctly and equally.

We have to be ok with compartmentalizing our emotional currency otherwise we wouldn’t be able to function. We trust that other people can take care of their tribe while they trust us to take care of our own. If our tribe is ok, then we can reach out to others. You can’t help someone unless you’re in a safe place yourself first.

I believe that people are born to be people and since we are social creatures that require each other for our psychological well-being, then yes I would say we tend towards the good. The people that did not have that gene died out long ago. That’s why it’s so rare to find these types of people, where their excuse for bad behavior is genetic. But as for the bad behavior of an entire group, that’s nurture to me. They were taught and encouraged and trained towards that as a response.
 
Russell_SA said:
Perfection is a subjective term because it’s a comparative description. Perfect compared to what? Your perfection for society would be different from mine and the person sitting next to you in the pew. That’s why I believe have to settle on good enough and attempt to maintain that. Just every sacred idea must be open to questioning and not assumed to be left out of that conversation for the idea of “good enough” as well as taking into account how we actually behave instead of how we wish we would. Someone may have a good idea for the betterment of society, but if they don’t take into account factors of human nature, we will not apply that idea correctly and equally.

We have to be ok with compartmentalizing our emotional currency otherwise we wouldn’t be able to function. We trust that other people can take care of their tribe while they trust us to take care of our own. If our tribe is ok, then we can reach out to others. You can’t help someone unless you’re in a safe place yourself first.

I believe that people are born to be people and since we are social creatures that require each other for our psychological well-being, then yes I would say we tend towards the good. The people that did not have that gene died out long ago. That’s why it’s so rare to find these types of people, where their excuse for bad behavior is genetic. But as for the bad behavior of an entire group, that’s nurture to me. They were taught and encouraged and trained towards that as a response.
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My comparison would be to God and most sitting next to me in the pew believe the same. You could say we are of the same tribe. 😃

You think the tendency of humans away from good has died out? I think it is self evident this is a delusion.
 
Techno2000 said:
What if when you die and find out you were wrong, and there was a God and a hereafter.
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I can only live my life in response to the evidence and the arguments that have convinced me. All that is subject to my education and understand of thought and reality. That is an honest approach. If credulity and hypocrisy is needed for me to “fake it till I die” in this case, then it’s a deity not worth respecting. And if it’s as powerful as it is, there’s not much I can do to stop what it wants to do. But at least I can respect myself at the end of the day for living an honest life.
 
RebeccaJ said:
My comparison would be to God and most sitting next to me in the pew believe the same. You could say we are of the same tribe. 😃

You think the tendency of humans away from good has died out? I think it is self evident this is a delusion.
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I believe we are genetically predisposed to be social creatures and rely upon each other for our psychological well being. That is the blank slate starting point. Look at children. They will inherently help people who have dropped an item and are struggling to pick it up without being told to do this. They have to be taught to fear and mistrust people to not do this. That is the conditioning. The nature of them is to be a part of the group and integrate into it. That’ is the good. This is so self-evident that I’ll leave this point at that.
 
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