Pillagers of the Earth, wasn’t that a Ken Follett novel?
Why don’t I pillage? Because I’m a pillage idiot.
That’s interesting. Could you elaborate? Did you struggle because you were afraid of becoming an immoral psychopath? Or do you mean you weren’t sure anymore of what was right and what was wrong? Or did you wonder why you should follow any moral rule at all? Something else?
To answer your question, since I lost faith at an early age, it’s not the sort of things that crossed my mind.
You pose some very difficult questions. Though I am an atheist, I can really only answer the above.
I need both hands to masturbate. I can’t do that and eat flesh at the same time. I have to do one after the other.
Nope, it is General of the Army.
General of the Armies is above that. Only John Pershing and George Washington have had that rank conferred on them.
Initially I felt the same whoosh that Rand felt, and I thought maybe I’d add in a serious answer.
Never mind.
It’s because they are vastly outnumbered by all the various flavors of believers-in-something-or-other who are doing most of the pillaging. They’d rather just take in the entertainment. Specially when leaders of the raiding parties try to assign teams to pillaging and burning, and there’s always someone who wants to only do rape, on all three shifts!
Really? Please explain your technique, with pics if possible. One hand is plenty for me, though a second is, er…, handy to, er…, handle the lube.
As to the OP… Well, not being concerned with post-life punishments or rewards, I have to be particulary concerned about consequences during my lifetime. Raping and pillaging sounds dangerous, and might get me killed.
Okay, pretty much everyone here has justified it by saying that other people would condemn them if they did, and so it is not in your self-interests. But why be moral when no one is looking (or judging)? That’s what I don’t understand. And I don’t think emotions count as the complete answer because rage, lust, and greed are just as strong.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
ETA: I’m a Deist, by the way.
You’re getting entirely too much love for this stooopid post. It just shows you don’t understand what Ayn Rand said. So it’s an indictment of you, not her ideas.
Also, so as not to be accused of Randjacking threads, this is all I have to say on the matter (unless I change my mind).
Seconded, although I didn’t want to bring it up, in the interest of not turning this into another Ayn Rand trainwreck.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
I think that’s where the humanist aspect comes in.
I don’t generally do things that make me feel bad. Things that hurt other people generally make me feel bad. I feel guilty in knowing that I’ve caused someone anguish or pain, and so I tend to take steps to avoid doing that sort of thing.
So I’d say emotions DO have a large role, because I’m able to see beyond the simple pleasures of doing THIS right NOW may feel good, but in the long run, I know that (at least for me), I’ll be bothered by it, and I’ll feel bad by doing these acts. That’s why in the long run, the benefits aren’t so great, and it’s just better to avoid that whole mess of giving in to one’s baser urges at the time. :Shrug: That’s my 2 cents I suppose on the matter.
In very Simplified Speak:
Og: We do what feels good. Some people don’t feel good doing bad things. So they don’t do it. Some people know it may feel good now, but it’ll feel bad later- so they just avoid doing it in general.
I try to avoid being a jerk because I want other people to avoid being a jerk to me, not because I’m afraid I’m going to be caught. Enlightened self-interest, I guess, though empathy plays a strong part of it as well.
Plus, as an atheist, I believe that this life is all we get. Why not spend my time making other people as happy as I want to be?
That’s why I donate blood, and donate money to charities. Not because it helps me, but because it helps others, and I would like to think that someone would do the same for me.
Good grief, man, have you not seen the line? There’s just not enough rapable dumb blondes in the sorority houses of today to go around! And that’s what is wrong with America today. We are seriously falling behind other developed nations in our creation of dumb, rapable hotties. Where did we go wrong? Not enough emphasis on education, that’s where! America will always have the mostest dummable blondes in the whole of ever. Plus, aliens.
Man, forget about raping yourself a nice dumb blonde. It’s easier to get a Prius.
In Soviet Russia, dumb sorority blonde rapes you.
It’s no fun raping unconscious victims, and of course they are looking if they are conscious. Pretty much the same with looting and pillaging – I imagine a lot of the thrill is watching the victims tremble. But again, they are watching you too.
Consider the following:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Now, tell me: what aspect of that command requires one to believe in God or the afterlife?
I have met (online) Christians who said, in just so many words, that the only reason they weren’t out killing, raping, stealing etc. was that God said not to.
At first I thought they must be joking, but they were really serious. Scary stuff! :eek:
And of course they couldn’t understand how atheists could ever restrain themselves from such fun activities, except perhaps for fear of going to prison.
Yeah, and if Uncle Bob had a vagina, he’d be my aunt, but he doesn’t, so he ain’t. They can say that all they want, doesn’t meant it’s true.
I meant watching with some kind of power to ostracize or punish you.
How about this rule: give me all your money or I’ll kill you and take it anyway? Now, I understand how atheistic morality, in practical situations, provides ample justification for living according to the law and customs, but what really separates that commandment from your commandment? And what ensures that other people will listen to your commandment? What if these people are incapable of “doing unto you”; for example, most people do not think that the Golden Rule applies to animals (or they’re not *that *outraged by it if they think it does), but where do you draw the line between “intelligent but morally irrelevant being” and “morally relevant being”? I’d just like to think than in a situation where I wasn’t accountable to others that there would be a reason to act morally (not that this would ever happen, but a casual glance at history shows that it has happened (granted, on both sides of the issue), with unfavorable results).
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Insufficient time and numbers, would be my guess. 
Seriously though, take look at the communist regimes of China and the Soviet Union and you see what happens when atheists get into the driver’s seat.
Has there ever been an atheist government that governed benevolently?
We are already adopting elements of State atheism now through the left’s success in turning the Constitution inside out, and, against the First Amendment’s clear intent, actually achieving the inhibition of the free exercise of religion that the Constitution clearly guarantees. This, combined with the left’s inclination toward socialism/communism anyway, does give one pause for the future.