Why was John Locke wrong when he said atheism was "not at all to be tolerated" [because]?

Question

"promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of human societies, can have no hold upon an atheist."

Answer 1

Yes, Locke WAS wrong, because atheists know that this is the ONLY life we have, and all promises, covenants, bonds must be honoured in this world, the human world, if chaos and calamity is to be avoided. We know that in the end, we are nothing but the sum total of all our loves and losses...

Answer 2

If anything, those would have more hold upon us than on Christians, because they hold themselves accountable to God above all else.

Answer 3

John Locke was wrong about a lot of things.

As for why he was wrong about this, it seems like it is an empirical question. He makes a prediction which doesn't hold true about the behavior of atheists. He also makes a key assumption which doesn't appear to be true either - that the bonds of human society are somehow based in religion. We can see quite easily that family ties, community and internalized values are some of the things that bond human society, and none of these are necessarily religious in nature.

Answer 4

Thatguy is wrong; it's exactly because  we hold ourselves accountable to God that we are MORE likely to keep a promise/oath. If you hold yourself accountable to nothing, nothing keeps you from lying.

Answer 5

It's really quite simple. From a practical perspective, there is the law and legal system. Regardless of theistic belief or lack their of, if I break a contract or a legally binding oath...like marriage, then I am held to the same level of responsibility as a Christian or any theist.

Philosophically, there is NOTHING to keep a theists bound to his oath either as evidenced in the world around us.

If we take a look at society, the vast majority of politicians in the U.S. are 'Christian' but we all know how slippery and deceitful politicians are. How many high profile Christian ministers have been caught lying or breaking oaths? (Cheating on their wives, etc...) I can go on about how many convicted criminals in prison are 'Christian' and how many of them tried lies and trickery to get out of their sentences. Still, the flaw with the John Locke's idea is that a Christian who is caught in a lie, breaking an oath or otherwise succumbing to the evils of this world, get all upset with themselves and then cry about how sorry they are and how much they will pray for forgiveness... Then, someone forgives them and says that god will judge them and, in they eyes of many, that's enough. They take the punishment and on they go. It's left with god. But the bottom line is that they still lied, cheated, broke their oath or whatever it is that they did wrong.

On the other hand, an atheist has no one to blame but themselves. Who can forgive an atheists. There are only two groups that are involved. The atheist in one group and those he lied to, cheated on or broke an oath to. If an atheist wants forgiveness, he needs to get it from all parties involved...Those he let down...and himself. OUCH!

Coming from a former Christian, let me tell you now, asking god for forgiveness was hard...why, because I really meant it, I really believed that his forgiveness would help make things right and because I honestly felt like I had somehow let god down on a personal level... Not unlike apologizing to your grandfather (or uncle or dad) for doing something bad as a child. It was neither easy nor fun. But compared to forgiving yourself and then asking the others you heart for forgiveness...it was a breeze.

So, while swearing on a bible means absolutely NOTHING to an atheist, loosing trust and damaging his integrity tend to mean a great deal. After all, once an atheist is seen as a liar, he can’t fall back on words like, "I swear to god!" or "On my Mothers soul" or "Please! I'll swear on a bible." It's all meaningless. My word, my honor, my integrity is ALL that I have. If I tarnish it, I have NOTHING!

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Answer 6

If a theist is labeled by another person a cheat, a scoundrel, a liar, etc.... he can simply say "God will judge me...." and go about his merry way.  He can believe that his soul is seperate from the actions he commits on Earth, because their is a whole other life waiting after death.  I have often heard the religious proclaim "God has forgiven me" regarding a wrong they committed.  It irritates me that they could make such a statement when another human is still potentially realing from the action committed against him.

Now atheists on the other hand believe that their is no God to judge them..... so all they have is who they are and how they act.  If they constantly lie, then they must own up to being a liar..... if they constantly cheat they must own up to being a cheater and so on.  Their is no other self that is hidden from view, they are what they do.  Their is no forgiveness except the forgiveness given by the wronged party.

A broken word means more to someone who believes that this is the only life we have.  It is said that ones word is all he has..... religious people don't believe that because they have God..... atheists know the meaning of that sentence far more deeply.