http://www.theolympian.com/news/nation-world/national/article193430349.html#fmp
Despite the fact our prisons are not filled with Atheists.

Boy scouts make bad Mormon.

Scout leader, but they won't let him, because he is an atheist. He is a decent man, made Eagle Scout, has all sorts of survival skills and such, but refuses to even go so far as to say "baptized but inactive."

Seems to me it is their loss, but that's their problem.

That should be "can you be good without belief in god?"
And the answer is, from more than ample evidence, "of course."

You can be good with such a belief as well.
In fact, all available evidence suggests that belief/non-belief in a "god" has little to no bearing on being "good" or "bad."

It's BOY Scouts for a reason. GOD Scouts just doesn't sound right.

Is the most famous atheist, Stephen Hawking, good? I'd say so.
What I am curious about is atheists like Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin and Kin Jung Un. What did they have in common that made them beyond not good, but evil? By evil, I mean, genocidal.
Obviously atheism doesnt make you genocidal, but what is it these atheist dictators had in common, other than their atheism, that made them genocidal?

koriwhore Wrote:
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> what is it these atheist dictators had in common,
> other than their atheism, that made them
> genocidal?

You put the answer in your question.

"dictators"

There have been theist dictators as well. A lot of 'em.
They were mostly or entirely "genocidal" as well.

What's the common thread?

Dictators.

Some have gone genocidal that were athiests, think stallin. When some people not all, stop fearing bad karma will happen for doing evil, or a higher power ready to strike, they tend to get chaotic, another example is the winter palace massacre, a certain mindset was necessary before the atrocity happened, fear is the beginning of wisdom

I say no, we need God for his forgiveness of the sins we have done and will do.

What is good? What is good enough? Is anyone perfect (believers and non believers) in ALL AREAS of life ALL THE TIME. Who make those decisions that you are good enough? Based on what?

Nottelling Wrote:
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> Who make those decisions that you are good enough? Based on what?

Society makes the decision, based on consensus, and our common experiences. That is why our ethics evolve and progress.
Religions don't help this progress. More often than not they are a hindrance, in fact.

Individuals whether believers or non-believers will decide for themselves what is good enough as well was what is good and evil. We have believers who have committed atrocious acts in the name of God as well as non-believers some of whom have a kind of zealot mentality about some other philosophy (like Marxism). Whenever the concept of something becomes more important than the lives of individuals, we have the making of some kind of genocidal episode. That concept of something can be from a religion or it can be from something else.

Honestly, the best people I know are atheist. Religions have propagated the myth that the world needs them.

Atari Wrote:
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> Honestly, the best people I know are atheist.
> Religions have propagated the myth that the world
> needs them.


Unfortunately in America "atheists" are less trusted than rapists.
https://www.thoughtco.com/atheists-trusted-less-than-rapists-248477

The researchers were looking to compare how often people mistrust four groups: Christian, Muslim, rapist, and atheist:

Christian: 4%
Muslim: 15%
Rapist: 46%
Atheist: 48%

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-atheists-we-distrust/

"Will Gervais at the University of British Columbia recently published a set of studies looking at why atheists are so disliked. His conclusion: It comes down to trust.

Gervais and his colleagues presented participants with a story about a person who accidentally hits a parked car and then fails to leave behind valid insurance information for the other driver. Participants were asked to choose the probability that the person in question was a Christian, a Muslim, a rapist, or an atheist. They thought it equally probable the culprit was an atheist or a rapist, and unlikely the person was a Muslim or Christian. In a different study, Gervais looked at how atheism influences people’s hiring decisions. People were asked to choose between an atheist or a religious candidate for a job requiring either a high or low degree of trust. For the high-trust job of daycare worker, people were more likely to prefer the religious candidate. For the job of waitress, which requires less trust, the atheists fared much better.

It wasn’t just the highly religious participants who expressed a distrust of atheists. People identifying themselves as having no religious affiliation held similar opinions. Gervais and his colleagues discovered that people distrust atheists because of the belief that people behave better when they think that God is watching over them. This belief may have some truth to it. Gervais and his colleague Ara Norenzayan have found that reminding people about God’s presence has the same effect as telling people they are being watched by others: it increases their feelings of self-consciousness and leads them to behave in more socially acceptable ways."

I think this is due in large part to the lingering effects of the "Red Scare" when 'atheist' became synonymous with "Godless Pinko Commie" in America, thanks to atheists like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Kim Jung Un, the unfortunate list goes on, and on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2018 03:57PM by koriwhore.

I think it's due in large part to christian sects telling their members that atheists are evil scum. Even those who have left religions have that thought planted in their heads.

That is my thought

Only in America will you find christians who think that Hitler and Mussolini were atheists!

Yes, a person can be good without God. The noblest form of good is
doing good with no thought of reward, but rather because it is the right thing to do.

scmd not logged in Wrote:
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> Yes, a person can be good without God. The noblest
> form of good is
> doing good with no thought of reward, but rather
> because it is the right thing to do.


^ this ^

Good thing Boy Scouts aren't running the world.

No, he'd fade away into oblivion without them.