Posted: Nov 24, 2016 12:56 pm
Keep It Real wrote:Yes I noticed the problem with the thread title. I should have called it "do some people need to believe in god in order to be good?"
Does believing in god mean that the person is good? There are some examples of horribly indoctrinated people out there who are, without extensive rehabilitation, pretty much incapable of moral actions without the guidance of whatever set of religious laws they've decided to follow. They need to believe, because that is all they know. Do their beliefs and how they act on them make them "good?" Only within the confines of their belief system or culture.
And there in lies the problem. There are different belief systems with different rules setting out what "god" or "gods" consider to be "good" behaviour. They can't all be right and some of the belief systems have conflicting rules setting out what is "good" behaviour. Which one is the right one? Which definition of "good" is correct?
The lack of crisp definitions for what constitutes "good" and competing dogma, means that religion is the last place to look for guidance on what it means to be "good."