Atheists: how do you convince a serial killer that killing is wrong?

Question

I mean that he feels like doing it, it's natural for him to do it. I recently saw an interview with a serial killer that was in prison for life and he explained that he saw no reason for not killing a person as long as he didn't get caught. He said that if he died and there was an end for his conscience for eternity then he could do whatever he wanted.

Answer 1

He's a sociopath.

If you educate a sociopath, all you get is an educated sociopath. About the only thing to do once you have one is protect the population.

He's not going to repent because he doesn't believe he did wrong.

Sociopaths tend to be from abusive backgrounds that have killed off their empathy starting from a young age. If we were to have better parents, we'd have fewer sociopaths. There always will be a few inexplicable people, and the odd person with a head injury causing them to be unable to feel empathy, but overall we can point back at ourselves.

Answer 2

How the h**l do you think anyone would be able to convince someone without prior knowledge of a murder? That would be equivalent to saying that you could convince a bald guy what his hair style was before his baldness.

Answer 3

I think in this case I would tend to make the act more personal to him.  Who is the most loved person in his life.   What if someone hurt them?   How would that make him feel.  Just because he is an atheist doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings.

If he has no feelings his is a psychopath and he wouldn't care  anyway.  At that point I wouldn't even try to make him understand the outcome of his evil.  Lock him up..throw away the key.

Answer 4

You don't.  You can't.  It's a lost cause.  Serial killers aren't going to be persuaded by the promise of eternal life if they just straighten up and fly right.  The fact that HE didn't see a reason not to kill doesn't mean there isn't one outside of religious belief.

Atheism is the lack of belief in god(s).

Amorality is the quality of existence that moral right and wrong (or good and evil) are incompatible.

The atheist answer is even simpler: do good things because it's the right thing to do.

His comment implies that he's a sociopath.  If he also happens to be an atheist, then you're going to have to convince us that a christian sociopath wouldn't have gone around killing people.  Good luck with that.

Answer 5

Some people are reading into the question; that the asker is inferring atheists are incapable of choosing right from wrong.

An atheist's morality is not in question.  It's the basis for morality that is in question.  Did it evolve over time into some group of rules for the "common good" (whatever that is) or is it something we intrinsically know ?   I'd love to see some concrete answers as to why humans (atheists and otherwise) determined that a certain moral code is best.    

Answer 6

Killing in general is bad for a species

A species that does not condemn murder, rape, etc. cannot survive

No need to infer nonsense religion

Answer 7

Some serial killers tell us that they kill because their god tells them to do so.  

In such cases, it is not possible to convince the killer that killing is wrong.  His first hand communications with his god trumps any christian's prayers.

Answer 8

because if is wasn't someone would just kill him.

Answer 9

Harming those around you will cause others to harm you in turn.  It's really that simple.  If he wanted to die then he should have killed himself instead of others.

Answer 10

That would explain why there are no Christian serial killers.

Oh wait a minute... almost ALL of them were Christians...

Christianity is an expression of mental illness.  Nonbelievers are less susceptible to such things in the first place.

Edit - The fact that I, as an atheist, am opposed to serial killers, is proof that your assumption is false.  I have morality, without your god, as do the majority of people on this planet.  This PROVES you wrong.

Answer 11

I wouldn't try to convince him it's wrong. I believe it's wrong but it may not be to him. I would just give him a death sentence.

Answer 12

it's pretty much impossible to prove to someone with serious psychological disorders what's wrong from right. it just does't click.

Answer 13

My answer: If you kill you are worse than a waste of life. You do nothing for anything on this planet. Quite the contrary.

However, things die everyday. People die. People are bound to die. But if you assign some kind of grander meaning to taking life, then you are no better than plankton.

Answer 14

I would try to convince him that it's wrong to hurt other people because it does not lead to a productive society.  However, I am not sure I have enough confidence in my abilities to think that I could persuade a lunatic with simple logic.

On a side note, are you implying that people who don't believe in a personal god have no reason to be good people?  If so, then are you saying that if you didn't believe that you would be rewarded in the afterlife, you would just run willy-nilly around and commit all sorts of mayhem?  

BTW, several serial killers have been Christians.  An example is the BTK killer.  

EDIT: Haven't you read any of our answers?  Many of us have given other options aside from killing them or locking them up.  But in any sense, since I am not a psychiatrist, I am not sure that I would be able to reason with a psychopath.  Though maybe I am wrong.

And morality makes plenty of sense without religion.  As Captain Zombie Atheism pointed out, the fact that us non-theists have good morals and are good, upstanding people in spite of our not being religious proves you wrong.  Sorry to be blunt, but that is the truth.

Good day.

Answer 15

In your deluded mind you believe that religion has cornered the market on morals. Shame on your parents and religion for brainwashing you so. Good people do good things, evil people do evil things, it take religion to make good people do evil things.

Answer 16

K for one I am not a sociologist nor am I a physiologist, let alone a criminal psychologist. And for that matter neither are you. And you think that a life devoid of Christianity leads to being a serial killer here? If a whopping 70% of Americans are Christian then isn't there a very good chance that such a person already knows Christ?

Just because a killer has no remorse, which medically would be a sociopath, most liklely having a misdeveloped frontal lobe, which would be the medical reason, having leterally no remorse, how does this denote a lack of religion in your eyes.

Your question is a blanket judgement with nothing to back it up in any way. Well except to stroke your inflated ego.

Answer 17

I am an atheist, and i would never harm anyone, let alone killing them.

Hows that?