What Would You Do?

[Craig]

From time to time, I hear claims from Christians that if they did not believe in God, they'd do anything that they want because they'd have no fear of punishment. More frequently however, they assert that there's no reason why an atheist should have any morals or concern for others because they don't believe in God.

So, I've got a question for Christians on the board here. The question requires you to suspend your beliefs, temporarily, to respond. If at some point in your life, for whatever reason, you became 100% convinced that God did not exist, how would you behave?

Be advised that your responses can be seen by other users! I was going to keep this poll confidential at first, until I realized that non-Christians could screw around with the results without me knowing. ;)

[Craig]

For the record, if I found out for certain that there was no God, I'd probably still behave about the same as I do now.

[Sauniere]

I'm no Christian, but I voted anyway.

[mataj]

Correct answer would be: "Deep in my heart, I know there is no God. I just use the religious arsenal of manipulative methods to take advantage of other people."

[Duo_Maxwell]

even though i'm no Christian, if my God did not exist it would not change a single thing beyond where the first black hole came from. Being a diest pagan (neo in many aspects), my God does not care about any of us, so why should I care about it?

One should be doing good for goodness's sake, not because some thing in the sky allegedly wants you to do it.

[Churlant]

People would do basically the same things they do now. God is created by man to justify his actions, not the other way around. Individuals would simply find a new excuse for how they behave.

-JC

[towski]

People would do basically the same things they do now. God is created by man to justify his actions, not the other way around. Individuals would simply find a new excuse for how they behave.

-JC

I'd stop letting my woman drag me to mass.

Other than that, pretty much the same...

[Bad Penny]

I do not have to take it on faith because there is no doubt in my mind that religions and their gods are a bunch of bull malarky. It's not that hard to realize if one would quit fooling themselves and look at reality every once and a while. Be that as it may, I would definitely keep doing what I have been doing even if there WERE a guy-in-the-sky up there turning my tap water into wine. :lol:

I believe you should do good to others, help out when you can, don't be a meany cuz mean people suck. I do not believe that rightousness is trademarked and can only be practiced by the religious. In fact, some of the most rightous people I know scoff at the idea of the church.

[gopman]

The first thing I'd do is go around giving wedgies to all the people who allude to Shakespeare in their poll questions... ;)

[JoeR]

Hopefully most realized that was a Shakespeare reference rather than a Disney's Aladdin one.

[Churlant]

Hopefully most realized that was a Shakespeare reference rather than a Disney's Aladdin one.

Do I get points for thinking of both? :D

Besides, the Disney version was no doubt modeled after the Shakespeare version...

-JC

[Craig]

The first thing I'd do is go around giving wedgies to all the people who allude to Shakespeare in their poll questions... ;)

Iago is a brilliant character; that Shakespeare created him is incidental to his excellence as an exemplar for this poll. :D

[Craig]

People would do basically the same things they do now. God is created by man to justify his actions, not the other way around. Individuals would simply find a new excuse for how they behave.

-JC

I entirely agree with you Churlant. Human behaviour is quite consistent over the long term, and someone who behaves a certain way now is certainly not going to change much even if they become convinced that God does not exist. However, despite my views on the subject, I wanted to know what others thought, which might include them thinking they'd behave differently, regardless of whether this is particularly realistic or not.