Atheists: Is stealing wrong? If so, explain why.

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tl;dr

Anyway, are there a profusion of naturalistic fallacies in this thread or am I not reading carefully enough? I mean, sure there may be a reason that societies shun theft or respect property, but that just knocks the question back to a utility justification (assuming because it has been useful it still is), or worse just an appeal to nature. On the one side then stealing reduces to a question of a broader moral system (not surprisingly), but on the other side it resolves itself in poppycock.

The morality imputation of stealing becomes crystal clear when you realize someone has stolen from you. Stole your computer, your video game, your money, etc.

It depends really. If you mean just normal taking something from someone else, you probably wouldn't do it considering the fact that putting yourself in their shoes, it sucks to have things stolen from you. And even if you don't care, there's a large chance you'll get caught. The other factor is that some people really don't care or like to take risks and might steal if they feel they won't get caught. Then there's piracy, which can be considered stealing even though you're not physically taking something from someone else, so a lot of people seem to do that.

But really I don't see how what I've listed above only applies to Atheists, especially as we're even more of a minority in prison, so unless the Theists are doing the more brutal crimes and we only get arrested for stealing or if we're just good at getting away with it I don't see us stealing much really. And I myself have done piracy in the past I admit although I've never stolen physical objects before. I do feel stealing is wrong though.

there is a lot of intellectual snobbery on this forum.
i do not see why you should be nasty to me and point out (with a smiley) that slowmutant writes better than me.

i am told often that my posts are just drivel and i should not bother posting to topics that are above my head.

so what if i am not very smart.

i think i have a right to post my ideas even if they are just trash among the gems of your own.

I'm sorry, but you're reading something into my post that isn't there. I'm not compairing you two at all. I said that you two seemed to be advocating the death penalty for stealing, which you both denied. So I quoted part of both of your posts to show that "it sounds like you do" (advocate the death penalty for stealing.)

I added the smily to show that I was being friendly, as opposed to belligerant.

Last edited by ed on 29 Dec 2008, 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

b9, you have the right to post here unless the site admin says otherwise. Don't worry about the quality of your writing. It's fine.

Absolutely!

This is one of the reasons Im not a christian. I cant respect the authority of something that cant be bothered to forcefully demonstrate its presence AND at least provide a rational justification for its motives.

If you need a god to keep you from stealing, that would make you some kind of sociopath, or kleptomaniac.

Disagree.

I was engaging in hyperbole, but the point is is that you have to be moraly deficient if the only thing that keeps you in line is the fear of divine punishment.

I actually agree with him, if the only thing holding you back from stealing or murdering is purely your belief in god then there's something severely wrong with you.

Agree.

A good person wishes only to do good.

A bad person wishes only to do evil.

A good solution to theft is for the legal system to instate a punishment in which the thief is to pay 7 times the value of whatever is stolen to his victim out of his own pocket. The only exception would be when the perpetrator could not afford it and stole certain items due to necessity such as food or diapers (not DVD players or X-boxes or gold chains ect.). These would be decided on a case by case basis, although they would still face negative consequences.

ok i am sorry i could not follow your post in the correct way.

i never indicated i was in favour of death penalties for thieves.

i squash fleas because they have stolen a drop of blood that i ate an honest meal to produce.
they are nothing but suckers of others fortune.
their lives should not have evolved and i do not like fleas at all.

but humans steal because they are incapable of providing all they want for themselves.
that is not in the same vein as biological parasites (pardon the pun).

i thought somewhat today about it and i have an idea that "banishment" and "exile" is better than prisons.
my idea is almost like an anti prison.

banish criminals from all our honest cities and towns.
let them fend for themselves in the outer fringes of the bushes where they are allowed to be free with other criminals of their ilk.
they will eat each other up in a nightmare of hellish proportions.
they will learn that to live permanently among only criminal people is to burn in hell.

i should not post this because i am beyond tired and i am "sleep posting".
but submit i will anyway

What's wrong with the current solution?