# I'm an atheist: would you have me as your doctor?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 8, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823 "2006-06-08T00:39:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2006, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/141 "2006-06-13T11:57:53Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#):
>
> Wrong-O. Someone who thinks this life is all there is, is muchless likely to regard \*HIS \*life as expendable. Mine, to him, is optional.
> hh
This makes no sense whatsoever.
Obviously you DO believe (as I asked you three pages back, but you couldn’t be bothered to respond to) that morality, altruism, caring about others is solely based in religion . Probably YOUR religion and no other. I find that interesting. Apparently fear of hellfire is the only thing that keeps lives other than your own from being expendable in YOUR world view. In mine, I care about keeping others alive and happy, without fear of eternal punishment. I don’t need a Supreme Being to make me feel that way. My humanity and upbringing serve the purpose just fine.
If you can find ANY \*objective \* evidence that atheists are less caring for human life than the highly religious (or is that only \*your \* sect?), please provide a cite. Until then, consider yourself a – well, this isn’t the Pit.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2006, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/142 "2006-06-13T13:43:44Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> “_What_”?! “_What_ do you like to fuck”?! Lot of sheep in northern Spain, eh?!
Lots of cows too, but if you try to get funny with either species you may end up getting an unexpected bath in the Cantabric Sea.
You’ve been warned…
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/143 "2006-06-13T15:07:00Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#):
>
> Wrong-O. Someone who thinks this life is all there is, is muchless likely to regard \*HIS \*life as expendable. Mine, to him, is optional.
> hh
Prove it. Every study I every heard of says that atheists are more altruistic than the religious, not to mention more moral in general.
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### Author:  [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/144 "2006-06-13T15:35:03Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#):
>
> Prove it. Every study I every heard of says that atheists are more altruistic than the religious, not to mention more moral in general.
It’d be hard to argue, since apparently the only thing holding **handsomeharry** back from stealing other people’s organs is JAY-ZUS.
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### Author:  [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/145 "2006-06-13T15:47:30Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#):
>
> Wrong-O. Someone who thinks this life is all there is, is muchless likely to regard \*HIS \*life as expendable. Mine, to him, is optional.
> hh
Yes, that’s why we go into healthcare in the first place. To laugh at people of faith on their deathbeds. Forget that whole “healing the sick” thing, that’s not nearly as much fun.
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/146 "2006-06-14T01:47:36Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> Lots of cows too, but if you try to get funny with either species you may end up getting an unexpected bath in the Cantabric Sea.
I had to look up Cantabric Sea. What we kids used to call the Bay of Biscuits. You guys need to learn a thing or two from the Tasmanians. All the sheep there are consensual.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/147 "2006-06-14T11:55:22Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#):
>
> Prove it. Every study I every heard of says that atheists are more altruistic than the religious, not to mention more moral in general.
I totally disagree with HH’s point, BUT…
cite the studies.
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/148 "2006-06-15T01:07:57Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#):
>
> Prove it. Every study I every heard of says that atheists are more altruistic than the religious, not to mention more moral in general.
There’s a problem with the premiss, as atheists are often more zealous, more irrational, more “religious” indeed, than the religious.
To paraphrase Professor J.D. Bernal, it is not always that science has to fight an external enemy, the Church; sometimes the Church is within the scientists themselves.
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### Author:  [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/149 "2006-06-15T01:13:53Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#):
>
> There’s a problem with the premiss, as atheists are often more zealous, more irrational, more “religious” indeed, than the religious.
>
> To paraphrase Professor J.D. Bernal, it is not always that science has to fight an external enemy, the Church; sometimes the Church is within the scientists themselves.
I wonder how you define “often”. Because there’s certainly some atheists who seem to make it their mission to go around sharing the Bad News, but not remotely most of us. If you actually mean to suggest that atheists tend to be more “zealous” than religious types, I’m going to have to ask you to make a real case for it. (If not, then you weren’t really saying anything, which leads one to ask why you spoke at all.) And as for rationality, disbelief _is_ inherently (and this point is pretty inarguable) more _rational_ than belief, since faith by definition rests upon a lack of evidence. I would assume as a religious person, rather than trying to redefine terms to make yourself “rational”, that you would instead recognize and make peace with the fact that your faith rests, ultimately, on the irrational.
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### Author:  [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2006, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-an-atheist-would-you-have-me-as-your-doctor/359823/150 "2006-06-15T01:17:03Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#):
>
> Wrong-O. Someone who thinks this life is all there is, is much less likely to regard \*HIS \*life as expendable. Mine, to him, is optional.
> hh
Seems incontrovertible to me.
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