How Do Atheists Decide What Is Good And What Is Bad?

[goodlife]

Is it conscience or upbringing.( Romans 2:14)

[janbee]

Chrisgel... I like your avatar of Sisyphus.

[jomifl]

Ah...immorality...there's the problem!

[goodlife]

True we learn much about right and wrong from our parents and others. Nevertheless, the Bible indicates that the conscience is inborn,and says

Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need.”—MATTHEW 5:3. So for a Atheists they will never know.

[daisya]

This is a wonderful platform for the brainwashed and religionists to spout their beliefs and we encourage them by answering them....they don't need to go door to door, they only need answerbank IMO.

[chrisgel]

Janbee --------- Thank you. It was to go with the recent name change that didn't happen I'm afraid.

[RATTER15]

Goodlife, most people reading this dont care less what the Bible says, why would any Atheist care what is written in a book so full of nonsense! You also clearly have no idea what an atheist knows and neither does your Bible.

I certainly dont know why you are so proud to be a JW, most people just find JW's just an irritating band of fools, their view on life is just quite disgusting to be honest! that is why people are often just hostile toward you and your ilk!

[wildwood]

goodlife, if you're gonna spout biblical quotes could you please do that properly instead of improvising on them to suit your personal purpose.
How on earth do you get "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need.”—MATTHEW 5:3" from
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"

[waterboatman]

It's in the person's makeup. Nothing whatsoever to do with any god!

[mibn2cweus]

No one 'decides' what is good and what is bad. Good and bad are not the product of a decision making process of parents, preachers, politicians nor popular vote. Good and bad are determined by the ultimate consequences in reality of choices and subsequent actions. What is good is what keeps us alive and well, knowledgeable and free to subsequently make other better choices in the future.

[vulcan42]

goodlife is quoting from the new world translation bible written by JW. It's strange that the book they love to quote from had to be rewritten, the original wasn't good enough for them.

[jomifl]

Thanks Vulcan, that explains more than goodlife is aware of :-)

[vetuste_ennemi]

It is not in itself unreasonable to produce another English translation of the bible, Vulcan. However, we would be surprised if the WT translators could do it honestly (as you and I might recognise the word), wouldn't we? Main purpose of their translation (grudge against their mother tongue apart) was to introduce Jehovah as a "translation" of Adonai into the OT and Jehovah as a "translation" of Kyrios in the NT - except, of course, when it is Christ who is being referred to as Lord. Other notorious perversions are the mistranlation of the the Grek word for worship when it is being applied to Christ, and John 1:1 "... and the Word was a god"!

[joko]

goodlife - if you cannot be a good person, without the aid of an old book full of quotes - then you are not a truly good person!

it is easy to be good when you are in fear of burning in hell if you're not!

the only genuinely truly good people, are good atheists - because they are good from within, they have no external forces threatening them to an eternity of hellfire if they are bad ...
they are good deep down... and that is more important than fake goodness borne out of fear.

[chakka35]

Well said, joko.

[LazyGun]

@Vetuste - You are a fount of information when it comes to JWs - I learn something new all the time. Was not aware of this business about their very own version of the bible, or the selective translations either....

[jim360]

While it's true that anyone who does good motivated by fear is not really a good person... I'm not convinced that there is any more than a tiniest handful of people who do good for that reason. The (small) sample of Christians I know for example, do good things because, well, it's nice to be nice. Makes them feel good. Fear never enters into the equation.

So for all that good atheists are not motivated by fear to do good, therefore they are "better" good people - well most good Christians are exactly the same. If there are any who are not, they are not really Christians.

[joko]

jim = history is littered with examples of 'christians' doing horrendous things...

many people even with belief in god still committed atrocities = therefore being good has nothing to do with religion...as goodlife is trying to claim