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Threats and promises are your guiding principles? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 days ago by VetOfTheSeas@discuss.online to c/atheism@lemmy.world
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[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

This mentality sort of reaffirms something I was telling a friend once. He has been atheist his whole life, but I was raised Christian. He was asking me what I meant by I "heard" God and the like. I told him that, looking back, I'd describe it as just my conscience. The same way people describe things as a voice telling them to not do a bad thing. It's not a literal voice, more of a feeling in your gut.

If Christians fully believe that is 100% God talking to them, I can sort of get why some might have trouble understanding why atheists aren't all psychopaths. That's being pretty generous though. At least some of them really do seem to believe that, without the threat of damnation, even they themselves would do deplorable things. At least they say they would. I have a hard time believing there are a lot of totally sadistic, hedonistic people that would really change if they became atheists. It usually feels more like a half thought out tough guy persona. Like they encounter a well behaved atheist and don't understand why the atheist isn't doing drugs and having rampant sex, then they say they'd be doing those things if they could.

[-] Zozano@aussie.zone 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm sure some Christians think this way, I wasn't one of them.

Before waking up, what I struggled with wasn't that atheists had an inner voice just like me, to discern right from wrong;

It was that I didn't understand why they were slaves to their consciences. It seemed reasonable to me that without objective morals, people could rape and murder as much as they want.

I'm now an atheist and now I rape and murder as much as I want (which is none).

[-] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

don't understand why the atheist isn't doing drugs and having rampant sex,

I would argue that you can do both of those things and still be morally right as long as it's all safe and consenting.

I think that Christians over-estimate how morally bankrupt they would be without Christianity, because they believe that every human is the worst without Jesus. At least that's what they tell me.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

I agree that you can do those things and be morally right, I was just using it as an example because the Christians often use it as an example of the types of things they'd be doing if they were allowed to.

Which sort of demonstrates that even while they may not agree or be consciously aware of it, they do have an idea of the type of morals they'd follow if they didn't believe in God. Because that's the example of the thing they'd want to do instead of say, just murdering people, it shows they would likely follow the "golden rule" idea (treat others the way you want to be treated).

I remember towards the end of my belief I sort of viewed it like there are things that are wrong according to my religion (like being gay) and there are things that are universally wrong (like murder). The big difference was that universal wrongs involved harm. I didn't see the harm in being gay (because there is none, lol), so I didn't believe it was something Christians should try to stop non Christians from doing. Yes, I was experiencing a lot of cognitive dissonance lol. This topic basically led to my eventually and final moment of rejecting my belief in God. I could no longer reconcile the idea of a loving, benevolent god with the idea that harmless activities were sin. It all fell apart shortly after. I'd already long been on a shaky foundation of "I think the American Church is bad, but Jesus is good" sort of stance. But it's all interconnected. Once you start to believe some of the stories are metaphors or myths, they all start to become metaphors or myths. If you don't believe in a literal virgin birth and literal resurrection, then the entire divinity and sacrifice of Jesus comes into question. And what did I have left? Nothing.

But my life is so much better now. Nothing has been more freeing than leaving the church and leaving behind the idea of god. Sorry this sort of got big and personal lol. Happy pride.

this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
1177 points (98.4% liked)

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