Can The Atheist Do Good?

[seer]

Scripture says that anything not done in faith is sin, that we should glorify God with all our acts, and that without faith it is impossible to please God. If God is the standard of goodness, and if He is the focus, and the decider of what is good or evil, then how could the atheist do anything truly good?

[firstfloor]

Scripture says that anything not done in faith is sin, that we should glorify God with all our acts, and that without faith it is impossible to please God. If God is the standard of goodness, and if He is the focus, and the decider of what is good or evil, then how could the atheist do anything truly good?

God is a figment of your imagination – that’s how. In other words, who cares what scripture says? Not only are atheists good people they are actually better than the faithful because they have at least one thing that the faithful lack and that is honesty about ridiculous religious ideas.

[Starlight]

Scripture says that anything not done in faith is sin, that we should glorify God with all our acts, and that without faith it is impossible to please God. If God is the standard of goodness, and if He is the focus, and the decider of what is good or evil, then how could the atheist do anything truly good?

How about scripture is a bunch of • Edited by a Moderator • and that anyone who arbitrarily selects one of the many such books of crazed ancient writings to believe today shows themselves to be a silly person by doing so? How about instead of using silly standards written in those books that say dumb things like atheists can't do good, we instead use useful definitions of good that can be applicable in our daily life?

We want morality to be a measure of social interactions, and preferably a measure of the pro-socialness or anti-socialness of those interactions, or to put it another way of the beneficialness or harmfulness of those interactions because that is a socially useful thing to measure (unlike your socially useless proposed measure of 'good' above). Whether someone is intending to help others or harm others is something that is is useful to try and evaluate and it is often something we do both consciously and subconsciously in our everyday lives as we try and navigate the social world and assess the intentions of others. To put it simply we generally want to evaluate if the social interactions are negative or positive: Is one being acting towards another with positive intentions due to placing positive value on the being it is interacting towards and wanting what is best for that being, or is it acting towards the other with negative intentions due to placing zero or negative value on the being it is interacting towards and not wanting what is best for that being?

Moderated By: Jedidiah

I don't know what has twisted your tail, but grow up and behave like a rational adult

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[seer]

God is a figment of your imagination – that’s how. In other words, who cares what scripture says? Not only are atheists good people they are actually better than the faithful because they have at least one thing that the faithful lack and that is honesty about ridiculous religious ideas.

Really? So you think that you are good?

[seer]

How about• Edited by a Moderator • who believed in invisible sky deities, and that anyone who arbitrarily selects one of the many such books of crazed ancient writings to believe today shows themselves to be a silly person by doing so? How about instead of using silly standards written in those books that say dumb things like atheists can't do good, we instead use useful definitions of good that can be applicable in our daily life?

Hit a nerve did we?

[Trout]

Starlight has trouble staying on task I've noticed.

[seer]

Starlight has trouble staying on task I've noticed.

I envision him sitting in a corner saying, I'm a good person, I'm a good person, I'm a good person....

[Carrikature]

Scripture says that anything not done in faith is sin, that we should glorify God with all our acts, and that without faith it is impossible to please God. If God is the standard of goodness, and if He is the focus, and the decider of what is good or evil, then how could the atheist do anything truly good?

I'm not buying this "scripture says" bit. Can you quote these?

As presented, this question is extremely rhetorical.

[Meh Gerbil]

Scripture says that anything not done in faith is sin, that we should glorify God with all our acts, and that without faith it is impossible to please God. If God is the standard of goodness, and if He is the focus, and the decider of what is good or evil, then how could the atheist do anything truly good?

Spit-balllin' here:
Romans talks about the laws written on the heart and that people know when they're doing good and evil based upon that standard.
So yes, I think that an atheist can do good - that is, the atheist can act according to the standard or against the standard of his heart.

However, that isn't the same thing as being righteous - which is a relational word.
The good an atheist can do is outside of a right relationship (righteousness) with God so the atheist does good and yet remains unrighteous.
The New Testament seems to make the point that law abiding (goodness) isn't the same and does not bring righteousness (right relationship with God).

So in my opinion an atheist can do good as long as you don't overload the term 'good' with 'right relationship with God'.

[Meh Gerbil]

God is a figment of your imagination – that’s how. In other words, who cares what scripture says? Not only are atheists good people they are actually better than the faithful because they have at least one thing that the faithful lack and that is honesty about ridiculous religious ideas.

So you believe my apparent faith is a question of honesty?

[Meh Gerbil]

Here is the Christian paradox as I see it:

A Christian can do good and be righteous.
A Christian can do evil and be righteous.

An atheist can do good and cannot be righteous.
An atheist can do evil and cannot be righteous.

Again, just spit-ballin'.

[firstfloor]

Really? So you think that you are good?

I may be a bad example of a good atheist but “one swallow does not a summer make”. No, I am just saying that your OP indicates a good deal of backwardness which impacts on your ability to be good and see goodness in others.

[seer]

I'm not buying this "scripture says" bit. Can you quote these?

Ok,

Romans 14:23

But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

Hebrews 1:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

1 Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

[firstfloor]

So you believe my apparent faith is a question of honesty?

Faith is pretending to know something – that is why it is fundamentally dishonest. Religions run fake merit systems and teach bad or simply wrong ideas. It does these things in plain sight; some of it very brash and exploitative. We should move towards making all religions disreputable as quickly as possible because it matters what we think is good, not what ancient dogmas say is good.

[Zymologist]

Where is The Atheist, and why is there only one of them?