A question for religious people?

Question

If you found out (somehow) that there was no God, or afterlife, or anything like that, then would you conduct yourself differently? Would you be meaner than you are now? Would you ever steal things or cheat (if you do not do so already)? Or do you base your morals on other things also?

Answer 1

Believing in God is not what makes me try to be a better person. If there was no God I would still be me  (which is far from perfect) and strive everyday to learn from my mistakes. It is human to want to steel and lie and cheat and be mean when we are not getting what we want - believing in god is about the grace of life after death not what we are doing while we are on earth.  The bible shows that Jesus was sent to forgive us of our sinful nature and by believing in him we shall have eternal life - we are not saved by our actions but by grace. therefor there should be no judgment from man to man, we are all free to make our own choices including whether we believe in god or not. My morals are based on being a decent and compassionate person, not on being Religious. I am sad to see that your view of Christianity has been tarnished but i hope you take what i have said to be honest and true.

Answer 2

hah, i would say lol if it wasn't insanely corny. okay, i think i have a decent answer...

i think my morals are based on other things. now, i'm not completely religious. i went to CCD one a week for six years, made all the grade-school sacraments, and still go to church on Christmas and Easter. But i think this question is very similar to the question of Nature v. Nurture. are we naturally born with morals? or does either God or our parents instill them in us? personally, i wouldn't change a thing. the consequences in this life are still the same for being a donkey named Jack; a life with dead fish and poo. (aka, down the toilet)

i just could never bring myself to break my morals. i could wonder about them, test their limits, but i could never just be flat out mean on purpose.

okay, it starts out as 'decent answer' because when i started writing this you hadn't got past the first three.

Answer 3

Be careful when trying to ask religious people such questions (I've learned this from my personal experiences and am stating my knowledge based upon my every-day encounters which seem to remain typical.  I am not trying to stereotype anyone but am basing the following statements on the average in which I have encountered.)

Most of the time, they'll twist the question back on you or take it as an opportunity to try an lecture you or "save" you from whatever they think they're trying to "save" you from.  We don't try to "save" them from anything (and I will keep my mouth shut in the instance that we are because they would take offense.)  If anything, we expect them to "save" themselves if they can, because really, that's all one can to by learning as much as they can about the universe in which we all must live.  (Not that "saving" people is really possible because we're all going to die eventually -- and don't give me that "we're trying to save your eternal soul" c**p because you can't verify that the soul even exists with anything tangible.)

Then, sometimes they try to twist our logic back upon us, like telling us that having total faith in the nature of the Truth is flawed because all we can obtain is faith in the truth as we perceive it.  Now, while I do agree that truth is clouded by the lens of perception, I have NEVER stated that one should trust entirely in one's personal perception of it. One's faith in the truth is challenging because our perception of it is always changing while the truth itself never does, and in being faithful to the truth one must shatter all preconceptions, theories, ideas, spiritual beliefs, and even conceptions of themselves as our knowledge of it keeps growing and we therefore change ourselves to its nature in order to do our best to remain attuned to what is a verifiable fact of truth.  (That is, scientifically verifiable truth -- based not only on personal observation but also collective and species-wide similarity.)

Then they find ways to justify God by blaming anything which seems detrimental about his character on the Devil, no matter what mode of logical reasoning you can use on them.

Sorry, but really, there's not much point in trying to provoke these people in considering even the slightest possibility that they might be wrong in the least.  The Bible says it and everyone knows that it's the word of God so it must be true right?  I mean, even though mankind didn't have any other means to entertain themselves in the day it was written than use their imagination and that dreams were thought to be real experiences given to them by God while they were sleeping, it couldn't possibly be wrong because it was written so long ago and mankind couldn't possibly have had such vivid imaginations back that far in history could they?

Science is a tool of the Devil, after all...

I mean it proved that the earth revolves around the sun and isn't even the center of the galaxy let alone the universe... but... they just changed their principals... in figure of speech of course, acknowledging that while earth is not the physical center of the universe it is still the center of God's love and attention because we are the most important of his creations...

Science started exploring the nature of evolution and again they just said "Oh well, that's just God's process of growth for the earth" after realizing they were never going to defeat it by saying it was a philosophy of the Devil (even I believed this when I was religious -- but I am CURED!)

Sorry for the sarcasm... I'm just a little frustrated right now.  I don't shove my thoughts down your throats people.  I just share them with you to try and get you thinking about the POSSIBILITY that maybe we're all just a bunch of ignorant retards who make **** up to make ourselves feel better and the science is the only reliable tool that we can trust to try and discover the truth and that we should be willing to cast out the old ways once the truth is made apparent so that our growth does not stagnate and we don't get stuck in some God-forsaken mindset that our superstitious ways are going to somehow "save" us.  

I'm trying to save myself from my own ignorance so I don't inadvertently hurt something or do something that has catastrophic effects on my world and universe because I was dumb and didn't know better.  I think that's better than saving myself from some idealistic devil because in this manner I can try and improve the future for our children and their children's children instead of wasting my efforts in trying to selfishly save myself and find hollow exaltation by performing acts that don't seem to correlate at all.

Answer 4

I can only tell you what would pertain to me personally in my own opinion in an answer to your question.

If I were to find that there were no afterlife, no God, or any other form of transcendence, then I believe that perhaps some things would change, but other things would remain the same. For instance, I personally wouldn't cheat, steal or do anything that may tarnish my personal legacy.  You see, in my mind, whether or not we continue on in spirit or live another life or whatever, we will still continue on in our children and what we teach them.  Our children are our blood. Created from us, and in escence are us, just with a different mind.  What we teach them, what values and standards we hold ourselves to and pass onto them is what will let us continue on for who we were. Our legacies that we leave behind, and the lessons and teachings we've learned and taught to those younger is what is important. The human condition can be evil or good by definition. We exhibit what we learn and and teach it later on in life, whether we realize it or not. We, in essence, are our grandfathers and grandmothers by living the lives of their morals and proverbs now.

Answer 5

The world would become a much meaner place until people discovered other reasons to engage in civility.

Answer 6

lol @ you religious people are impossible.

that was funny.

if i found out there was no God, which is sort of an "impossible" thing to wrap my head around, i seriously doubt that i could start living my life without the same ethics i live by now, i have a conscience.

hope that was helpful.

Answer 7

comeon if theres no god or whatevr

u would do whatever and  have no consequnce (ecxept cops

Answer 8

I would be the same as I am now. I would be disappointed to learn there is no God and no after life. I would have a lot of fear about other people, not knowing what they might do. But I believe in God and an afterlife I don't think I will ever change.

Answer 9

From my experience people are good or bad depending on the person not their religion or belief.

Ive met many and i mean many two faced hypocritical self interested christian people and religion never stopped them from doing what they wanted it actually made them feel like they could do those things and they could just go to church and ask for forgiveness and everything would be okay and that they would still go to heaven.

Ive actually met more nicer open minded atheist probably because they are logical and questioning their environment and people around them.

But it all really depends on the person. Religion can make some people more conscious of their actions and more considerate of other people but most of the time not.

Answer 10

I'm just thankful that I never knew or believed differently than knowing all my life there was a God. But I've often speculated that if I had been born another way I mean as a nonbeliever in anything spiritual I would see no reason at all for the existence of anything the way it was.  For it would be meaningless to me.  

When one considers that life and death are equal that good and bad mean nothing to death.  Then for me life is meaningless as well as laws.  No man's laws are higher or better than any one elses laws.  For man is the one to create them.  Then he is the one to destroy them. Man can create his life.  He can destroy it.  And who is to tell me different?  

I would be a mocker not just of the believer but of the ungodly as well for me there is no difference between them since they will both die.   No man has beaten death.   So if we die.  What difference does it make?  We are no better than a worm crawling through the earth.  We have no more value than a stone we cast into the lake.

You see I can get very morbid about life if I believed that there was no God or afterlife.  And the reason why I am not like that is because I met this God and he is real.  And for me believing in God is the truth.  Because let me tell you.  If the truth was there was no God, who cares?

Answer 11

I couldn't answer that and I don't think any religious person can. Your 'additional details' to your question suggests frustration with the answers received. I don't think you understand that we people who are considered "religious", cannot fathom any empirical truth that would negate our faith.

It would be like the loss of gravity in the universe, we simply could not comprehend that.

I would say this though; if you don't like the answers you are getting? Try a different question.

Answer 12

I would be very disappointed and saddened. I would change a few things in my life but still stick to the same ideals (as I see the logic in them). I guess I'd stop praying though. Idk, I can't imagine a life without God. And whatever source "proved" there was no God I would not believe. Maybe I'd just believe in some higher force (even if it wasn't God) and work to do the most I can in this life.

I wouldn't steal/cheat etc. but it would be for diff. reasons but I think I would be a worse person (like more partying, more superficial, less respect for the elderly etc). Plus I wouldn't have met the wonderful ppl I've met through religious activities.

It would pretty much suck for me! BIG CHANGE in my outlook, but similar lifestyle I s'pose.

Answer 13

"C'mon, doesn't anyone out there have an actual answer? Geez you religious people are impossible."

If anything, this will enlighten you about religious people -- which was the aim of your question, if I'm not mistaken. I already knew the outcome of this query from just reading your question (without the additional details, let alone the answers). How? Nietzsche has put it perfectly already:

"The believer is not free to have any conscience at all for questions of "true" and "untrue": to have integrity on *this* point would at once destroy him."

[Nietzsche, The Antichrist(ian), section 54.]

EDIT: I had not read only your question, but also the details when I "already knew the outcome of this query". There's a difference between "details" and "additional details", you know;).

As for how it relates: it is a meaningless question, as believers -- people who do not have a spiritual backbone from themselves -- will never accept the fact that there is no god, etc. As Nietzsche says: "Error is not blindness; error is cowardice." And cowardice is a symptom of weakness, of course.

Answer 14

there already is no god

Answer 15

Your question is absurd, because with no God, we would not exist, however, just to answer your question, I don't know.

A better question would be posed to those that don't believe.

"what if you're wrong?"