'Why Believe in a God? Just be Good' Ads Set to Run Next Week Through Christmas On D.C. Buses - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

As an atheist personally (please don't let me scare you from posting after me now!) I took great interest in this article.

I've spent a little over a year or so as an atheist thus far, and I grew very detached from many things in life with friends and family, and Christmas is of course one of them (Hannukah too, with a Jewish Uncle). What did I have to do on a holiday my family embraces (Roman Catholic), but I do not? I was honestly very alone. So what hope did I have to enjoy a time of the year meant to bring friends, family, community, and indeed humanity together? If I'm not Christian, should I be able to or allowed to act in the same spirit as they do? What of the question of morality and doing good?

Of course I do not have the same "morality" as those practicing Christianity, but that does not mean I am not a moral person. I volunteer at a local homeless shelter here in Japan making and distributing lunches to the homeless who are neglected by their own countrymen and fellow species. I am currently looking into becoming a Doctor of Medicine so I can better help all those around me. Heck, if someone drops so much as a dime (or 10 yen piece here) I will insist on picking it up for them. I go to extraordinary lengths to help people not because I feel God requires of me but because I require it of myself.

So yes I do disagree on certain matters, for instance abortion or religion in schools or pre-marital sex, but to be moral is different for all people even in the same religioun, and to me being moral is doing something, anything, for the good others around you and not just for yourself (which I am sure many people here will agree with, religious or not). People can and should do good because it is a good thing to do and not just because they are obligated to by their religion, which is what this ad asks for. It is controversial because it is an atheist ad during a theistic religion. But the religion has and should transcend religious lines because of its power to bring people together, from strangers helping strangers to family reuniting with loved ones.

And if you are wondering what I will be doing for the holidays given how alone I felt last year, it will be with my family and a great friend of mine. I will be out trying to help people because it is not only something I love to do but because it is something people should do in general.

Just a quick question - where does your sense of goodness or morality originate?  Your understanding of what is right and what is wrong?   Is it from an innate feeling in your heart/mind (your conscience, per say) or is it from a cultural stand point? 

OM Goodness this just irritates me to no end.

"Just be Good" by who's definition? What is good? Who defines good in this country if not the Bible?

I just had a conversation not even two weeks ago with a dear friend who is in law enforcement about this very subject....soon legal cases will be won with the above question.

If you take God out of our schools, our Courthouses and our Highest Houses then who dictates thou shalt not steal or kill ?

Where did those laws come from ?

With now not allowing the Ten Commandments to be placed in our government /school buildings how would a potential felon know the difference between right and wrong, Good and Bad ?

 How do we expect criminals and the  general population to know them, and why are they not deemed obsolete if they have been removed from the premise ?

We will soon see criminals winning court cases ....why do they have to abide by laws that are not even allowed on the lawns and in the halls of the courts who hear and adjudicate their cases. Secondly if God and his commandments are no longer taught or allowed in our schools who is left to teach these moral standards and commandments ?

The Ten Commandments are not taught in schools any longer sooo how did the poor criminal know it was a law, or wrong to lie, cheat, steal or murder ?

Soon cases will be won with felons pleading ignorance because they have not been taught right or wrong !

When you remove God, his laws ,principals and precepts from our schools, government and our countries Highest Houses, WE ARE HEADED FOR A WORLD OF SIN, HURT AND CRIME !

How do you legally uphold a law that is not allowed to be posted or seen in so many public places ?

It is kind of like trying to prosecute someone for soliciting at your door or trespassing....it just wont hold up in a court of law if you did not have the no trespassing or no solicitation signs and warnings posted.

Kevin....just to clarify I am not attacking you or the way you believe....just questioning where we are headed as a country in general, with no moral compass giving us a direction for right and wrong. 

This is a great article and your question posed is even better !

What of the question of morality and doing good ?

Just something I am passionate about because of my faith and belief system.

How did anyone know before mainstream Christianity what was "good" and what was "bad"?  How did anyone know before any religion (whether it be the beliefs of the Greek, Romans, Egyptians, Native Americans, cavemen, Chinese... the list goes on) what was good or bad? 

People were around BEFORE the bible.  Most people couldnt read until the last few centuries and had to rely on priests to interpret for them.

And yet the Greeks still had the golden rule.  The Romans still had a virtual sea of laws.  The Chinese still knew not to harm another creature without just cause.  The Native Americans had a set standard to live by.  Many peoples of the world managed to live without resorting to killing themselves into extinction without the presence of a "Christian" God or laws, or the Bible itself.

I'm not saying the Bible doesnt have some great ideas, nor does the Koran, the Torah, the book of Mormon, the Wicca books, the Shinto... the list is enormous... and all of these books and scriptures have great things in them.  But that does not mean that I want society laws built on the Shinto or Confucius.

Nor do I want them built solely on the Bible.  It doesnt matter to me if 99.9999% of all the people in this country are Christian... there is still that one guy out there that doesnt need the Bible to tell him how to live his life.  He might use any number of books, or might not... the point is, he doesn't require the Bible, and should not have to submit under something he doesnt believe in. 

I would feel the same way if this country was 99.9999% Jewish, Muslim or people who believed in Pink Unicorns.

It is not up to the state to inject faith into our lives. 

It is not up to the state to decide which faith should be injected into our lives. 

Be careful what you wish for... it might just come true.

Thanks Kim I know you weren't, it was more a blind defense to much of the criticism I've heard about morality of non-religious folk.

Apologies in advance for this long post. (If you skip to the end I reveal a secret)

To the question of where we head as a nation, I do not feel that the country itself needs religion; it needs faith. People need something to believe in. Be it Christianity or Islam or science (as is my case). We are already extremely corrupted morally by the belief of capitalism and the "do as is good for you" mentality of the nation. It is why I have come to love Japan so much while I have been here: people don't only do what is best by them but for others. The morality of helping people is one I feel that goes beyond religous lines and appeals to the humanity we all hold (most of anyway) in ourselves. That is why I feel this ad makes a good point but does it in an odd way: you do not need to be Christian to appreciate the value of helping others or loving people not just in this holiday season but all year long.

However, once we go beyond the morality of helping others and into Christian morality as a whole, then we run into trouble. This ad only asks people to be good to others regardless of whether or not they are Christian. But some people take it as a total attack on all Christian morals and then we end up here. It simply is not.

So where should our nation go if it is becoming secular? I think the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra brought this idea to light in a brilliant matter. People feel that without religion, there is no way. To me, and Nietzche, that is simply not true. People need a reason to live no doubt but religion is only one of the ways this occurs. As a nation, we should be guided by a duty to ourselves, to others, and our country. Our country serves the role as the "higher authority" we live to appease. Instead of going to Church we pay taxes or wait in long, long, long....... long lines at the DMV. We have a duty to ourselves to live our life as we see fit, to engage in the Pursuit of Happiness as our Founding Fathers put it. But we also have a duty to others not just as a religious commitment but as a social need and even maybe a need as a species. We are social creatures, and we are on the whole caring creatures. If people are driven by not only the capitalistic desires of wealth but the knowledge that their wealth can be spent helping their nation and fellow man than I feel we have little to worry about.

There are enough opinions in this nation to clash and conflict to eventually bring about some form of action. We've been doing it for over two centuries and we don't show any signs of stopping. When it comes to other issues of morality everyone is guided by their own morals; religions just tend to try and organize particular morals and people. Some Catholics support abortion just as some scientistics believe in creationism. No religion is a solid block of definite morality but made up of many islands of individual moralities which tend to be more similar than different.

I do not fear what will happen to our nation's "morality" if it becomes secular at the government level. People will still celebrate Christmas and Christ's birth and murder will still be wrong. But when it comes to gray issues such as abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia.... it is the clash of secular and religious and their differing moralities which will in the end bring about the best path of compramise, critical thought, and the morality of our nation.

As to your question Christine, I believe it comes from two things: genetics/personality and outside influence. We are no doubt born with some sort of personality: Hitler a crazed man me and kind man. But we are also influenced by what we experienced. Having to choose between having or not having a baby, having Parkinson's and stem cells being available, or having to watch a loved one suffer. All of what we experience in life will either to a small or large degree affect how we think. Religion falls into this as well. I was raised Catholic and that no doubt helped me fully develop my love of helping people. Religion serves as a single flag to fly under in morality, the morality of God. But people will still feel differently on a number of issues and it is unfair to say two Catholics will feel the same on abortion. More than likely they will,. but not always.

So in short, it has to do with how you are born and what you experience after. This is why no two people, of any faith, will ever entirely agree.

Oh yea the secret. Santa's real.

I may be atheist but I'm not a jerk to those who believe = )

Kevin great post, Likewise Miss Diagnosed....

 But for me it is about a relationship and not religion. I never worried about good, bad or the consequences of either. But I was saved by Grace...

Ever since I gave up and gave in (my moral choice, I knew and felt he was calling) something and someone changed me.

I am not the person I was....that person was self centered and selfish, did not care about fellow mankind and was pretty much in it to win it....( come out on top every day ).

I am a simple person ( it just works better for me that way Lol) but I know that my moral compass is directed by a higher power. I always try to leave the day I have been blessed with.... a better place for someone less fortunate. The change in me since beginning the relationship is like the difference between night and day, light and dark. Twenty years ago you could not have paid me to do the things I wake up and want to do for others today.

Sooo I guess what I am trying to say is my good is guided.....there was no good before in me ...and I know without him and the relationship I maintain with him, I would revert right back to my old self centered me, me, me lifestyle.

Kevin and Miss Diagnosed you make some really good points in your post. I enjoyed reading them. But for me and the point I try to make, I still think without the commandments posted soon we are going to see a multitude of trials won because younger generations will say who was supposed to teach me that ? Why was I not taught that in school ? What is a commandment ?  Why did my parents never talk to me about that ? Why is that a law and who says it is a law ? Who says it is wrong , who determined that and when ? Soo many of these issues just really need to be set in stone for some of the clueless creeps who will push them to the limits and then claim ignorance.

We could argue all Religions, the Bible, God, Jesus, Morals and  what makes a person good, bad, worthless or somewhere in between all day long. We will all have different values, beliefs and outlooks in general on life and its many mysteries. And I surprisingly enough am not the type who will try to choke my relationship down your throat or make you see it my way. My way is well... my way .

But I know who and what directs and guides me...I also remember what I was like before I began the relationship with him. If I had counted on only the good within me before the relationship, to make a difference in this life towards my fellow man, well lets just say that this and most of my life would have been well...a blank page ! My good would have simply never surfaced.