• SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    I always hate that argument. Why be a decent human without the threat of eternal damnation? I mean that threat doesn’t seem to stop a vast number of religious people from being unbelievably cruel to their fellow humans, so…

    • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
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      2 years ago

      If anything, it just used as justification for bad behavior. “My genocide is completely justified. It’s what God wanted!”

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 years ago

      There are also plenty of good people in places with religions that have afterlives but not hell or any threat of eternal punishment.

    • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Religion doesn’t stop a bad person from being evil. It can convince a bad person they’re still good (better!) when they do evil.

      And good people don’t need religion to do good. But it can make them overlook the evil of other religious people and protect them, making them bad.

      The best-case scenario is that religion can have no effect on how good or bad someone is. Good people stay good despite religion, not because of it.

    • ShieldGengar@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      I don’t. It tells you, in clear language, the type of person that this “loving Christian” is. They literally can’t imagine altruism, and that says more about them than what they think they’re saying about me.

      • dudinax@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        That kind of person is revealing an innate sense of right and wrong that’s independent of their teachings. You should fear the Christian who’s envious of your disbelief in hell.

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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        2 years ago

        It also tells you they only care for the Christian tribal identity, not the actual teachings of Christ.

        To be Christian is to be like Christ, not… whatever the hell these people think they are.

    • hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 years ago

      Yep. Even though I’m not an atheist, I still don’t understand this argument. I’m a good person (or at least try to be) for the sake of being a good person, because I don’t need to be threathened with eternal damnation in order to not murder people.