I, uh, don’t understand you either? That sounds completely ridiculous to me. My immediate urge upon seeing a spider in the general vicinity is to kill it as fast as possible.
No, there are lots of other reasons, many of which are mentioned in this thread. But they all boil down to punishment, i.e. negative incentives, even general ones, like, “I shouldn’t do this because if everyone did it, things would be bad for me.” (If you don’t believe this, just look at any society that does not have an understanding of these negative incentives.) So I would say it is not the *only *reason, but the ultimate reason.
Are you stating that the Higher Power’s Punishment is the ultimate reason for yourself?
Or just the general idea of Punishment is the ultimate reason for yourself?
And how would you feel/act in a world without Punishment if you can image the hypothetical realistically- if you can’t that’s fine, I suppose. It just seems odd that in a thread on Atheists’ behavior, when asked on your own thoughts, you take a cop-out stance of “Oh, I believe in a higher power that’s why I don’t”. When I first asked the question, I was hoping you’d be able to examine your own reasons and see how that would apply similarly to an Atheist (though I admit, I thought your answer would not simply be the “Higher Power” but something a bit more humanist). But yes, feel free to elaborate on your thoughts.
hahaha, you’re really all over the place with that one. I kind of doubt most americans that supported the war did so because of a desire to see the jews rebuild soloman’s temple. I think it had more to do with misplaced desire for revenge over 911. Isn’t that a stupid enough reason for you? why manufacture an even crazier one?
I don’t believe this. If you really have no other-regarding reasons for not harming others–that is, if all of your reasons for not killing and harming others boil down to self-preservation, and you don’t really care about the welfare of others at all–then you are a psychopath. I doubt that you are, and so I suspect that your motives are not transparent to you.
The support of Israel by fundie Christians for religious reasons - specifically, paving the way for the Apocalypse - is hardly something I made up. One of the things that makes Christianity in general so destructive is it’s focus not only on the end of the world, but on how that’s a GOOD thing.
Becoming an atheist is the end of an intellectual journey.Being able to think for yourself makes you less likely to join a group with a conquering mentality. Atheists do not have a leader pushing them on to gather converts. It does not have an equivalent "convert or die "component that religions have. Atheists are pacifistic and peaceful people for the most part.
Because more religious people believe people who don’t follow their religion deserve to die than people who have no religion believe that religious people deserve to die.
Same reason pro-choice people ain’t killing anti-abortionists like antis are killing pros.
Do you perceive that atheists in general have the belief that theists deserve to die?
Remember, the two largest world religions hold as part of their respective creeds that those who do not believe in the deity will perish horribly, and that this is a just thing.
Or perhaps, with respect to Annie-Xmas’s example, you can enlighten us with incidences of anti-abortion activists killed because of their beliefs?
Whisper it softly, monavis, but I think you’ll find Liberal was being a touch ironic about what Christians would do when they attained power. :dubious:
As to the first Christians, I had better read Acts again and find all that interesting stuff about declaring that property was theft, agitating for a revolution to return the means of production to the workers, and proclaiming religion the opiate of the masses.