AgentSeethroo wrote:
When I think of atheism, and please forgive my ignorance, I think that what does it matter if you screw up? You have no real REASON to be good, other than the fact that it's what you SHOULD do. There seems to be no REAL reason to make yourself a better person...
This is difficult for me to explain, and my sleepiness is no help. But here goes nothin'. I will offer my point of view as just an atheist; dragging Buddhism into this would be out of place.
I understand your point of view, although of course I don't agree with it. I have my own moral code. I admit I don't always follow it, which makes me a hypocrite, but I'll readily point out that many Christians do the same thing, and -- not saying this is any of you guys here -- some will blow it off, figuring if they pray for forgiveness, it's OK. As the old saying goes, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. I'd imagine that goes double when dealing with somebody who would never grant such permission to you!
But we have nobody to ask for forgiveness from, other than people we have wronged and ourselves. You might think that this just makes things even easier. Nope! I can't speak for everybody, but I tend to hold guilt for a long time. If something goes wrong and it's my fault, I must bear the full responsibility. Now, I very rarely regret anything I've done, no matter how bad it is; that is, if I had the opportunity to take it back, I wouldn't do it. But I wouldn't simply throw the matter out the window, either. Dwelling on things is one of my weaknesses, let me tell you.
But why would I try to be good in the first place? You speak the phrase "it's what you SHOULD do" as though it were some arbitrary abstract thing. If it's what I should do, there must be a reason for that, too. The most obvious is that it's in my best interest. Give and ye shall receive (at least the giver secretly hopes). But I think we all have certain rights, most importantly the right to live. I think that's something inherent in life: if we were not meant to live, we would not. And we all have a right to happiness, for in such a state we experience life at its best.
I'm doing a lousy job of explaining this, but I think you can see what I'm trying to get at here. Besides, we're sort of hard-wired to act in the best interest of our species to begin with. We're built to make friends, and to treat them right, and so forth. And why shouldn't we? Sure, we can step on toes and exploit people, but in the end I don't think doing so is really in anybody's best interest. It's just delusion.
Okay, rambling over.
- Kef