Good Without God? Yeah, Right!

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So, I hear about all these folks who are "good without God."

I'm studying to be a professional SJW (social worker), as such, I tend to do a lot of work/volunteering for nonprofits. My fellow volunteers are almost always religious church goers...

I don't think I've met a single progressive/secular humanist (besides me).

So, where are you guys? Where are all the athiests/libertarians/athiest libertarians?

Admit it. You guys are just selfish, lazy as*holes.

It's the church people, annoying as they are, that really do the hard work in the helping economy.

Isn't this thread/post being a bit confrontational ? I thought a good religion/belief-system was tolerant towards others when it came to a difference of beliefs. For the record, I was a former Atheist myself (four times for that matter), and so I am familiar with the reservations and reasons that they may have regarding God/religion.

For another record, out of all of my research and past paradigms, according to my current paradigm-grid, neither belief nor disbelief for any particular model of reality seems to have any bearing on one's behaviours or conduct or tolerants towards another, with one exception.

I mean, heck, even religious people today have mostly an intolerant attitude to their very own Messiah, who wrote multitudes of corrections due to the many biblical-errors for Christians at http://www.the-testament-of-truth.co.uk/ (and also for Muslims at https://www.dar-es-salaam.org/), and even if Atheist-regimes are pointed out to have been murderous, such as Stalin, the other side also has plenty of records for Pogroms/Inquisitions/Holocausts/Witch-Hunts/Crusades for which are records of the darker-sides of religion (even in my research of para-psychology have uncovered cases of recollections of priests during witch-hunts who dunked suspected witches into waters and possibly even having had them drowned during the Puritan-Era within America), but the common denominator is belief that it is alright or permissible to punish another in some way for some reason (the other common denominator being that both are like forms of governments where disobedience/non-conformity is considered to be a punishable act).

All that matters is getting everybody to agree to the Golden Rule, and to take it even a step further, that everything that we or our servants cause others to experience, including all of the collateral-experiences, will also become our own future-experiences. Seriously, that is the one belief-exception, because nobody in their right mind would want to cause harm or injury to another, when they know they will experience the same in the future (including any and all accounts of the collateral-suffering that results).

Everyone has their own motivations...or not. My volunteer activities are completely separate from my beliefs.

Is it safe to assume that the OP identifies as a "Christian"? If so, then he might do well to consider the words of Jesus when He said ...

Ref.: Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)

It may be a biased sample error that you are falling for, too.

For instance, do most of the nonprofits you volunteer for have "mission" in the name or "lgbt"? Could make a difference, you know? That was a bit extreme of an example, but you get the idea. Is it possible that you happen to favor the npo's that a local congregation favors? Is it possible that you are in a location where the demographics are highly skewed, or even populated with a number of people who feel they must appear religious to not be ostracized?

So much more info is needed, otherwise you are taking a single example - you - and applying it universally.

I believe the OP identified himself as a progressive/ secular humanist and was critical of other like him for, in his view, not making up a large enough part of the charity work force

You have not established that "volunteering for nonprofits" is the measure of "good." Nor, if it is a virtuous act, that it is the sole measure of virtue.



'Behave as I think you ought, or I'll call you nasty names.' Has this tactic worked well for you in the past?

As Luan has said, prove your definition of good and righteous is valid, check your stats and confirm that you are not guilty of conformation bias. Even if the majority in your clique are religious, how have you determined that the groups you work for are equally attractive to both the theist and the non theist alike. Aid is given in many ways, I charge a lot less for my services when the clients are obviously less well off and I charge less for charities. I rarely walk past a beggar without handing over some coin. I also despise the world we live in where charities are seen as a get out of gaol card by capitalist governments balancing budgets by stripping the poor of the few resources they have, instead I agitate for change, rather than become a prop for the continued push for austerity ie abject povertization, of a whole class of society.

So you can get on your high horse and rage all you like, but all I am hearing is a self serving, self aggrandizing person who has not looked very far into the issue.

Just covering all bets.

People by nature are self centered. Fear of Hell from disobedience is a very strong motivating factor that atheists do not have. Doing for others with nothing in return from them means most people need to feel they will get that back a different way. God's approval, karma, eternal life, whatever, there's a tangible, self-serving benefit for these people to volunteer, give money, and be overall selfless to others.

We all want to be compensated for what we do whether we'll admit to that or not. Non-religious people don't get compensated other than by social approval. Which is why many of the people who are non-religious and do volunteer work love to make sure everyone knows about it until you're sick of hearing it-- that's what they "get back".

GoonSquad, please acquaint yourself with the PPR rules

It's okay to criticize a religion or atheism, but you cannot make generalizations about its followers.

Swearing and insulting people are also two behaviors that are against the WP rules.

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