Why do atheists care about human life?

I'm not saying that no atheists care about human life, but those that do don't really know why they do and don't have a 'scientific' way to explain it.

If life is just an accident with no greater purpose or meaning then atheists can't really explain why - say - the Sandy Hook shooting would be such a big deal, or why death would even be a big deal - because humans are just organisms no different than anything else, so why is the Sandy Hook shooting any bigger a deal than if a cat or dog gets killed? Why is death even that big a deal either, if life or death have no meaning then why is death such a bad thing - sure you might 'be gone' according to atheists, but a lot of atheists think the world is such a 'terrible place', so why's being gone really that big a deal?

Atheists can't explain any of this. This is why I believe that atheism is often a morally bankrupt philosophy, and leads to the devaluation of human life. If people are just the result of a freak accident, then why is killing such a big deal for example? Other animals get killed every day? And an atheist doesn't believe in any consequences for his actions, so if he wants to rape, or kill, or abuse people and thinks this makes him 'happy', then why wouldn't he since he only lives once and has no 'afterlife' to worry about?

 

We just do.

An innate part of being human is that you care about other humans.

 

Not always, what about people like Hitler or Stalin who enjoyed killing people?

So basically according to atheism, Ghandi and Hitler will both have the same fate after death, so if someone wants to kill people then they don't have any consequences for it.

 

And if Hitler repented, he would be living in eternal happiness in Heaven according to your theology, while Ghandi would have died since he was Hindu. Yeah. Pretty messed up, huh?

We feel suffering when others are suffering, it was a part of our social evolution. I don't see what is so hard about thinking that out. And it isn't that illogical to come up with a rule like the Golden Rule that almost everybody tries to abide by simply because it makes life 1) more enjoyable and 2) safer.

 

Except, you know, all of the consequences that don't include an afterlife. Like being hated in your time, having your legacy be despised, and being, you know, killed.

On the flip side of the coin, if the afterlife is so wonderful, doesn't that make things like mass slaughters a *good* thing? The victims get to go to the greatest place ever!

 

First off: atheism as such is not a philosophy. I venture a guess that atheists are pretty diverse concerning their philosophical views, even though a lot of them may tend to materialism.

And rather than bothering about atheists my main question as a Christian would be why so many of my fellow-Christians don’t value human life even though the Christian faith provides them with so many reasons to do so.
How can the avowed Christian G.W. Bush and the avowed Christian Barack Obama look into a mirror after having killed so many people, people that according to their and my faith were made in the image of God?

 

Utter bull(*)(*)(*)(*). The entire fields of psychology, social psychology, and sociology are studies into the scientific reasons for why humans care about each other.

 

Well I think that God is smart enough that a person like Hitler couldn't just 'find a loophole' to avoid punishment a minute before his death, or that people who are generally good people like Ghandi wouldn't be punished just for not having "heard about Jesus" - I'm not concerned what 'some Christians' believe.

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Some people don't care though - so if a person is wants to be bad then what's stopping them since there are no consequences, and human life is no more significant than animal life?

Even if there is no God, it would still be better for society if people believed in one.

 

Apparently you are also not concerned about what the New Testament has to say, and I don't mean your statement about Ghandi here. That bit is fine.*

That would very much depend on the kind of God people believe in.

* fine apart from the fact that Ghandi has in fact heard about Jesus. That inspired him to develop the idea of non-violent-resistance. He wasn't a Christian though.

 

It's not what some Christians believe, it is laid out in the Bible. Jesus is the only way to heaven, repent, and you shall find eternal life. Ring a bell?

How are there no consequences? Do you live in Somalia or something?

Which is just sad to say. You have a pessimistic view of humanity and think that the majority of them are too stupid to think for themselves. Do you really feel that bad about being human? And, hypothetically, people you think that if God does not exist then it would still be better for people to make up stories about God and to create morals themselves through holy texts? Isn't that contradictory to your hypothesis that humans are too immoral or stupid to create their own morals?

 

Atheist are not trying to explain the big reason for life, or conscience, or humanity. Chances are a lot of them hold the same opinions as anyone else about ethics, or the value of life and so on.

No one is really sure about the existence or non-existence of God, we just have our own opinion.

The problem with many religious theist is that holding on to simple belief is more important than following the lessons their God or what the prophets have tried to teach them. I think it is the height of hypocrisy to say that everything in some ones religion only applies to members of that same religion.

So relax. Many atheist are jerks, but so are many theist.

Live by your beliefs, but let God do the condemning.

 

Many atheists (not all) subscribe to humanism, the belief that morality comes from humans and their humanity. In my interpretation, humanism rejects absolute morality, since after all, it's just humans (and to some extent some animals) who get upset at murder or rape, the universe doesn't actually care.

Instead, I have a moral relativism, but don't confuse that with making up your own morality. The relative morals that we would have come from our humanity, in the sense that most humans know or learn not to kill people (to what extent it is genetic or social, I'll leave to other discussions). This explains why different societies come up with different moralities (although the fact that humans work the same way makes them similar) and why some have (what the rest of us would call) flawed moralities. Using that morality and empathy coming from humans, atheists can think Sandy Hook being a big deal without there being an absolute morality.

Some would argue that this kind of morality is inferior to absolute morality, but if absolute morality does not exist (which is postulated in both most atheism and many theistic ideas) then it is as strong as we feel our morality to be.

 

Our nearest living relatives the great apes care about each other in fact primates generally do and other animals show mercy elephants in one documentary touched a dead baby and seemed to feel a loss. Its instinctive in social animals to care for each other in the end its what humans do far more often than not, for every sociopath hurting people there are thousands of good people who try to make the world better.

Atheists all want to live good lives and leave the world a better place for it like most other people, and if one commits crimes there are bad things that can happen like going to prison or you get punished by the community.

 

Ever held a newborn in your arms? Only minutes old with half your genes.

 

How ironic is your use of the word "scientific" to explain a religious person's beliefs.

 

I expect it is because they are human and don't share your weird notions.

 

Why do so-called Christians like President G W Bush start unjust wars if they care so much about human life?

 

This is an ethical question, you wont get any scientific answer, as that is outside the scope of science. My answer is that killing people makes me feel bad, due to empathy.

However this thread may reveal more about yourself than about atheists. Why do you care about human life? Is it only because of fear of Gods punishment? If thats the only reason, then you are really a bad person. But I think it is not, so you already have the answer inside you.

 

Now when it comes to society, then in theory fear of Gods punishment may act as a deterrent, but in practice there is hardly any evidence that it is effective, and in fact more atheistic countries tend to be less violent. And most importantly, this has no bearing on the validity of atheism, becasue whether religions has positive effects or not (and I believe it has some), it is still made up just the same.

 

I thought you'd be highly concerned. After all, you're suggesting that it is only their beliefs that makes them care about human life.

There have been long periods in Western history when pretty much everyone did believe in God yet terrible things were still done on a daily basis. Lots of people who believe in God continue to do terrible things.

Good people do good things because they're good people and bad people do bad things because they're bad people. Good theists often use God as a guide in their actions but bad theists can also use God as a guide in their actions too. Religion is generally far too open to interpretation to carry any kind of guarantee of positive behaviour.

 

If fear of God is your ONLY reason for not committing crimes / killing people, um , well ..... you have issues my friend. lol

 

Well said sir!

I have to admit I find this thread a little ridiculous because it assumes we were savages before the Bible came around and that somehow we have gotten to a more civilized state from religion. The most recent previous century has been one the most violent with a strong religious footing. Plus the thread is ignoring the biological factors in having cooperation between people to accomplish tasks. Also it assumes that being alutristic etc towards others is always selfless, we know it's not in other mammals and seemingly not in our own as we are doing it to push our chances of pushing our own genetics forward. IDK, this thread is asking the wrong question, it's a very shallow thought process in my mind, I'm not trying to be a jerk but after all of the religion and evolution stuff I read, I can easily see waaaay past this argument. To me I see it talking the Universe starting when the solar system was created while knowing there was a big bang 13.72 B years ago. .. Totally pointless debate. Though I guess it does get to the point "what makes us human", interestingly this poster is probably opening a pandoras box of ideas which vary from religion but will probably opt to reject that and assume faith is the only answer. PS> I admit that I am rambling .. LOL

 

Nope, I can't explain it ...it just makes good sense to treat people decently, saves a lot of chaos...



And I don't care if it doesn't make sense


I'm still not going to make something up

 

Atheists care about humans.......and these humans are themselves and only themselves.

Atheism is pro-selfish-ism, it's about putting yourself above everybody else and in front of everybody else.