Theists: If you found out God wasn't real would you still want to be a good person? Would you be a good person? Or would you just do?

I'd like to think I would be the same as I am now. Welp, I guess I gotta start dodging?.........

Looking back over my life and switching from being a fanatical believer to a solid atheist, I can say that neither state had any effect on my desire to be a "good person". I can say that the more I learned to be empathetic, the more I understood that treating others with respect and empathy was a good thing.

In short, I suspect that being a good person had very little to do with believing or not believing, but was based in empathizing with others.

The only reason why you try to do anything good is because God exists. Otherwise there would be no good or evil.

I found out god isn't real.


I live in the same way, only less crazy, and much happier.

Ooh, this is going to be good.

Edit: I think we ruined the fun by pointing out the stupidity in advance.

So what keeps you from evil since you have no basis for right and wrong other than your own opinion.

Update: And you have already dodged the evidence.

I am doing what I have always wanted to do. Everyone should.

Well I guess that question really implies that being good is just a show for God but is that really being good? And if that is what you are asking well, then some people may give up their act but really that answer would depend on several factors! 1. how genuine they would be. 2, if they could really find that out, 3. what reason they had to be good in the first place,4. if they wanted to find that out or the truth

WONT HAPPEN TRY GAMES....I WAS RAISED WELL SO IM ALREADY THERE..I AM AN ARMY VET

Christians know Jesus wasn't just some mentally unstable guy because of PROPHECY. Prophecy is foreknowledge, revelation and wisdom that man receives from God. Info received by vision, word or spirit that no man could know, unless it was provided by God.

The Bible is full of prophecy. Yes, words recorded and written by man, but of things no one could have foretold or known apart from the Living God. The majority of these prophecies being written about the man, Jesus Christ. Foretelling of His birth, His life, His ministry, the miracles He would perform and the manner in which He would die. All written hundreds if not a couple thousand years before He came to be. By this we would know He, Jesus Christ is the Holy One, the Anointed vessel of God, the Son of God, the Word that became flesh.

Everything written, beginning from His birth and ending with His death was fulfilled by the life of the man named Jesus Christ.

Imagine your birth, life and death being written hundreds to thousands of years before you were born and your life fulfilling it all, being apparent to all those who read the writings. How could you or anyone deny that???

As for His miracles, there were historians who lived in the days in which Jesus performed His miracles and they wrote about Him. One of the most well recognized of historians being, Josephus. Mainly, because he was an ATHEIST! Yet, he wrote of what he witnessed and new of the man named Jesus, which supports the Bible.

I leave you with this - Rather than seeking the thoughts and opinions of others. Seek to know truth for yourself. Read the Bible and ask God to reveal Himself to you. I myself was raised having a Christian upbringing, heard all the Bible stories and sermons, having had a grandfather who was a preacher. But I was still lost to my own way and far from the truth til I got into the Bible, began to seek truth for myself, not being lead by the thoughts, words or experiences of others. This is when I began to know who God is and not just about Him.

"Evil' is a word I steer clear from. Too much religious baggage, not my religion.

In my religion, we're supposed to find a healthy balance in things, we're supposed to take responsibility for ourselves and attempt to use moral reasoning.

We don't generally believe people have to be religious to do that. Morals are a human construct, because we recognize it benefits us all.

A list of arbitrary rules IMO have little to do with morality.

If you found out God wasn't real, how do you define what "good" is, and why is your definition of "good" the absolute truth over any other persons definition of "good" which might disagree with yours?

If you have proof God doesnt exist - show it!
Lol...

That would be difficult to find out. Because of being made in God's image, I have the free will be moral. If I isolate myself for God, it would put me under the influence of Satan. At point I would not be a moral person even if I wish to be. Here is why. 1 John 5:19, 20
19 We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.+ 20 But we know that the Son of God has come,+ and he has given us insight* so that we may gain the knowledge of the one who is true. And we are in union with the one who is true,+ by means of his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life everlasting.+

The answer is probably not. That's because people raised in Christian homes are only concerned with being good for a reward in the afterlife, while people raised in non-religious homes are raised with true morals and understand that their actions could affect someone else's life. As in real life, not some kind of afterlife.

People who say that the bible is a book of morals have put a flag on themselves that reads "I'VE NEVER READ THE BIBLE". The bible is a instruction book on how to get to heaven.

Im a theist i spent 35 years of my life being atheist doing anything i pleased it reduced me from having $300000 to zero and a jail cell!

You could not pay me enough to go back to that hell for a life evan if i knew with certainty there was no god!

Perhaps some would , but the answer to that question lies in the heart of each individual, and no one can answer that for all....

I will always be a good person if I'm using my own standards. Hitler and Stalin thought they were good people too. Labeling yourself as a good person is meaningless. Having a 3rd party metric to hold yourself up to, such as that provided by God, is the key to actually being a good person.

For a third-class conditional statement to have relevance, it must have the potential for being the case. The case cannot exist that God isn't real.

No, I'd likely just kill myself. That is not me just talking, I've been deeply and profoundly put to the test. I always question why atheist or nihilist don't just end their lives, if they conclude there is no point, and so certain "nothing happens when we die". What is it that makes them arise from bed each day, is a question many of them need to ponder. I totally understand where a lot of them are coming from, and had I've not had the experiences I've had in life, it is a good possibility that I had become a nihilist atheist. However, I just happen to disagree.

Ever since I concluded that there has to be a God, I had to know for certain, and spent much effort and time, challenging my own convictions. Religion was not force on me growing up, but I was causally exposed to it, and left to come to my own conclusions about faith. I do not reject religion, or deny it's value, but I find it limiting for the most part. I see how some people find atheism a reasonable position to take, but it's limitation is the assumption that our existence is confined to a materialistic point of view, which I just cannot bring myself to accept.

Through all my questioning and investigations through, religion, philosophy, science, and what people call, 'spirituality', as well as various other avenues of study, I have yet to find reason not to believe that there isn't a God. From a very young age, it occurred to me that there wasn't ever a question of God, only how I choose to see and understand Him. Therefore, it seem reasonable to remain open minded about things, and allow my beliefs to evolve and change as new information is presented. I found it easy to let my opinions and convictions go because I never completely identified with them as "me" or "mine".

About ten years ago, while discussing my take on living a materialistic and superficial life with some friends I had over, I became struck and dumb founded by the realization of how we all unconsciously follow this programming, which included myself. I fell mute and unresponsive. To speak and address may company in anyway would be acknowledging and accepting the "lie" that was just revealed to me. I could not bring myself to explain or communicate to my friends what I was going through, and felt certain they'd think me insane.

They would had been right. After giving up on their attempts to "snap me out of it", I knew I couldn't just sit their all night, and decided to excuse myself to my bedroom and let them know I was calling it a night. As soon I shut the door behind me, I became consumed by madness. I had never experience anything like it before, and thought I belong in a mental ward. I desperately sought out some brief instance of peace but found none. For the first time, I felt prayer to be ineffective.

I looked for refuge in one of the books that has been central to my spiritual development, but couldn't even make out the wise words I became very familiar with over the years. I knew then, that this was really happening. Everything had became dull, grey, empty and depressing. The sense of God I had always felt my whole life was no longer present. It was a very convincing reality, and was just as real to me as the reality where I've always intuited God's presence. I felt myself sinking deeper into this atheistic and nihilist reality, while my mind was consumed by a multitude of incessant whispering voices I couldn't make out.

"How am I insane if I know I am insane?", I kept thinking. At one point I began to contemplate suicide as a possible option, which, ordinarily, I would ever consider. I remember a deep part of me saying, out of despair, "I would do anything to make this go away", even if I didn't completely return to how things were. The following moment, the voices began to dissipate, and the emptiness became full again, which was soothing, but replaced by 'darkness', which was a familiar feeling to me since childhood.

Then came this "dark presence" that silently communicated to me, "this is how it can be, if you accept me, and accept that there is no God". I instantly saw it as a deception, and would prefer the "crazy voices" than to believe that lie. It was almost comical, were the circumstances not as if my soul was on the line. It reminded me of all the accounts I've hear of those who claimed to be "tempted by the devil". The "presence" seemed to pick up my convictions and withdrew, as if to say, "so be it", and the insanity returned, with more intensity than before. Since I was a child, the 'unknown' tend to excite me, but for the first time, it terrified me.

No God...no devil...where does that leave me? Since the episode began earlier that night, I felt trapped between two walls, where "good and evil" are on either side, in a corridor that led into a "darkness of the unknown". I thought more about leaving a note behind and taking my own life, should the state remain longer than I could withstand.

It was something I wouldn't wish on my own worst enemy, as I contemplated ways to commit suicide if it lasted into the next day. Although, the presence of God I felt in everything, everywhere, at all times, seem "distant" and "absent", I concluded that this could only be something I must endure without God's assistance, for some whatever reason or another. The episode lasted the night, and I eventually fell asleep not knowing what I'd awake to. I awoke to a eerie silence and stillness.

The most terrifying night of my life was followed by the most peaceful and serene day of my life. There was a bliss and calm unlike anything I'd ever felt, but recall mentioned by those who attained advanced spiritual states. I found my startle reflexes gone. The crisp fall air passed through my entire being, on my walk downtown to work in the busy shopping district. Everything and everyone was 'vibrant' and 'alive', and seemed to move in slow motion, as a "synchronized dance", to a hidden vibrational frequency that pervaded all.

This eventually faded away, which I considered to be a possibility beforehand, but it left a lasting impression that makes me think of the experience at least once a day, ever since. Over the years, I've had many ideas about what I went through and the reason for it. It was evident that it was a profound test of faith, which I would not waver on. It reminds me of the Zen expression of the "stone in stream that remains firm as the water passes by it". I had to go "through hell to appreciate heaven". I've always believe God answers our prayer, but not always when and in the way we expect.

I believe God intervened, aware of my resolve to take my own life, and showed me the world in a way I wouldn't have seen should I had killed myself. Every difficulty I endure in life affirms and reinforces my faith in God, because I always come out of them able to look back and laugh. Once, while reflecting back on the episode, it took me back to a time in my youth when I asked myself if I could believe in God, even if it made me the craziest person in the world, which I answered, yes, at the time.

I've always tried to live my life as a principled person, no matter what beliefs I've held. I don't expect everyone to fully follow in the faith they choose to accept. But there comes a point when you actually have to apply it to your life, beyond blind faith. This is where call bull$h!t on a lot of atheists and nihilists, rooted in materialism, supposing "there is no meaning to anything", or "no-thing" as an afterlife. I don't not believe as they do, but when I was present with their views as my reality, I'd sooner take my own life than live another day. This leads me to question how much materialist actually believe in there own convictions.

I just don't see the point in living if there is no God and life has no meaning and purpose. One might interpret my circumstance as a pitiful choice between "God and suicide", but I think that is missing the point that it is 'my choice', even if those are the only two options. A nihilistic or atheistic position would be pointless to take if there is no point to anything. I feel for those who feel as though they cannot change their situation, while not know why, and how to change it.

I wonder if it just fails to occur to the atheist/nihilist, or they avoid thinking about why it is they continue life, day after day, because doing so would signify that there is something worth living for in their lives. If what we believe "is true", then for the materialist without God and freewill, is "stuck", with little to no hope of advancing. Where I in the materialist differ is their acceptance of that which eliminates and excludes possibility, whereas I accept that which provides and includes possibility.

Without God, how is it even possible to question and investigate His existence?

Ask some adults who found out that Santa Claus doesn't exist when they became adults. I knew that Santa Claus never existed even as a naive child and yet I believed in God.

God is good.

Without God no one can be good because the Bible says it is God who works in us to act and live according to His will.

When we become born again there is something called regeneration that happens where the Bible says we become new creatures. Anyone who has experienced this will tell you that being filled with the Holy Spirit caused them to have new desires and that's what has happened to all true Christians. God changes our hearts so that we are grieved over our sins and desire to be rid of them

Why do Christians post to suggest they are so morally unstable that is how they will behave if their faith wavers and become a danger to themselves and others?!

All the mass murderers and virtually all the serial rapists claim god told them to do it all!

Research shows that the reason humans struggle with emotion to find equitable solutions is pinpointed the region of the brain called the insular cortex, or insula, which is also the seat of emotional reactions.

The fact that the brain has such a robust response to unfairness shows that sensing unfairness is a basic evolved capacity.

The emotional response to unfairness pushes people from extreme inequity and drives them to be fair. This observation shows our basic impulse to be fair isn't a complicated thing that we learn.

It therefore fully illustrates that all humans have morals controlled by the brain and that Christians are entirely wrong to try and claim morals as their own!!!!

But Christians found a way round it!

Government statistics show that Christians are vastly over represented in prisons for sexual, violent and fraudulent crime whilst year on year government figures show atheists make up only 2% of the prison population!

The Catholic Church is paying millions in compensation for the sex/paedophile crimes of their priests alone!

Christians are vastly over represented in the divorce courts!

Christians invented the concept of sin and then the idea that you could sin, ask forgiveness, get pardoned and start with a clean sheet!

So no surprise that they are so expert at it is it‽

A Christian is a man that feels repentance on Sunday for what he did on Saturday and is going to do on Monday. - Thomas Russell Ybarra

Good is defined and created by God. So your question is moot.

The thing is that I have found out that I know absolutely nothing about God but I still play the game anyways.

I do not require the coercion nor threats of a god to live right for my parents taught me what morality was long before I studied the gods and their religions.

A person can live a more loving and virtuous life by reciting daily and with care the angelic psalter of the Blessed Virgin.

I can tell you, before I knew God I was a wicked unforgiving person with a foul mouth and he cleansed me and changed all that; I want to be good because he is in me and living through me to do good because that's what he does

If God did not exist, I would not be here so the point would be moot.
Evil has never interested me in any case. I can see no point in doing what is evil.

If there is no god, neither is there any evil or good. If you live or die matters not at all for once it is finished, your place remembers you not, the universe crawls onward without noticing your absence. Hitler, Lenin, Mao - did a good job in killing millions since we need to control our numbers anyway. So, instead of horror at their remembrance, we should applaud their initiative to do something about this disease that we call humanity.

believers would do whatever their cult leaders tell them to do...

I have never seen a connection between religion and being good or evil. If you are a good person, it matters little whether or not you are religious. And the same goes for bad people. Just remember, Hitler was a Catholic and Jesus being Jewish, mattered not to Hitler when he tried to exterminate the Jewish population from all of Europe.

Every day I experience a greater realization of the goodness of God. I will continue to do so for eternity.

Your point is mute -- because God is real. No point in indulging in useless fantasies.

Just being good is not good enough...Works are required...
As Jesus said...
(Matthew 28:19, 20) Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”

no

I don't know what evil things you are talking about!
If one concentrates on living a honorable life that brings peace and contentment it takes so much time and concentration that evil thoughts have no room to form.
I am not waiting for heaven to enjoy the benefits of pleasing God, I get them every day by being as nice as I can possibly be under the circumstances.

I lived that way for 42 years.

Even if I was imagining this whole thing (that God Almighty, Creator of the universe didn't really reveal Himself to me in 2003, lavishng His love on me, protectng me and providing for me), I'd still NEVER go back.

An excerpt of my epic salvation is on my profile, if you care to look.

Absent God and His truth of good and evil..........what man determines what's good? Who sets the standard? In some countries, killing homosexuals is required as is cutting off the head of adulterers or stoning them to death. Man cannot set the standard for good and evil. So where does it come from absent God? In the United States for some people killing cops is good because of imagined racism in the minds of every cop that wakes up every day. A drug dealer thinks murdering his competition is good. A rapist thinks what he does is good. Maybe you should rethink where good begins.

I was raised in the Jehovah's Witness cult

Converted to Christianity

Became agnostic/atheist


Now I am converting to the Orthodox Christian church

My morals and ethics were sound throughout my life. No matter what belief or lack there of I was practicing.

I would want to be a good person in general but I still wouldn't be able to do everything perfect. I still would be for the death penalty. I would still want pedophiles to be imprisoned for life or receive the death penalty. I would still lie from time to time with certain people that try to control me. I would still call some people names. etc. I am all of this with even believing in God.

Someone will suffer from one's evil deed(s). I think none would like suffering, including you, right?
to avoid suffering, do to others what you want others do to you. Is a considerate person a good person in your eyes?

There is no way to prove God is not real. For the past thousands of years, even now, people try to prove God wasn't real. None has succeeded.

Yes, except for severe persecution being honest, and doing good has its own rewards, but this question is invalid anyway, because I found out God is real; Jesus is real

I dont mean to shock you but I have no intention of doing evil things. I like to have fun and fun is not evil.

If there was no God I would continue to try to build a better world for everyone just like I did when I was an agnostic. I was an agnostic for many years and solved the God question so I dont have to be concerned with discovering He isnt real.

I was a good person (to the best of my ability), before I formed a belief in God, so yes, I would be good if there wasn't a God.

There would still be philosophies that argue the virtues of righteousness over evil. Christianity says that God has caused us to become priest and kings. Without God, some would seek to become philosopher kings, like in Plato's Republic. The sadness is there would be no power to back up those inclinations for God is the source of all things good.

I'm not religious but I strongly believe you wouldn't go from being a person that adheres to the important rules of religion (not murdering people, not stealing, generally not being a bad person).

Is this a trick Christians only do good because of God question? Sneaky atheists. How can God properly judge me if I'm only doing good when I think he's watching.

You seem to think I worship God only because he's some sort of bully who threatens me--that being a good person is like giving the school bully my lunch money.

But I worship God because God is good, and one of the ways God is particularly good to me is that God helps me to learn and practice ways to be a better person.

i would allow myself to be the slut i was before learning promiscuity was wrong

There'd be no point to living and there wouldn't be life to begin with. Therefore, God is real. Everyone has faith that God is real it's just that some won't admit it. They refuse to admit it. Their brains tell them he's in existence and they ignore that signal.

Human beings are bound to human laws. They will be treated as human beings until they respect these laws. The law will not care whether you believe in God or not.

If YOU found out God IS REAL...how do YOU change?

I'll NEVER ...uh, find out!!...God is other than what the bible says.

But YOU, that's different.

I obey laws anyway.

I would commit suicide

there is NO consensus on what is good or evil ...see isil

What a stupid question. How's that for "dodging." It's not even worth my time to answer such ignorance and stupidity. Do you want to be a good person or are you going to go out and stab somebody tonight because you lack belief in any God? When theists propose this question to atheists it's just as stupid.

The only reason why you try to do anything good is because God exists. Otherwise there would be no good or evil.

I'd be an angry bitter militant atheist