If there is no God, if there is nothing after death, if there is no right/wrong determined by a higher power etc. Then, to be blunt, what keeps you from ending it all right now ?
Well, for one, there's the built-in survival instinct. Things without it would be far less likely to continue to survive, so it's really an evolved trait.
And hey, I'm here now, so I might as well make the most of it. (And yet, here I am on a tech forum's OT section on a Friday night.:awe
On the idea of morality or ethics: It's actually unsettling to me to think that some people believe that a higher being is necessary for morality. So would these people instantly become sociopaths if they suddenly could entertain the idea that there are no gods?
Rules of morality or ethics exist because it can allow for a stable society, given a species that has considerable evolved urges toward tribalism and self-destructive behaviors. Some people like to be able to feel safe from these ancient demons - things like worrying about predators, starvation, or murder. So we've got these rules to help satisfy that desire for security; those who violate them are punished as a means of dissuading the behavior.
But, for whatever reason, some people just don't see human punishment or human rules as deterrents; they need to feel that there is a "super-parent" somewhere out there, always watching for bad behavior or dangerous situations (but always doing absolutely nothing about it, interestingly enough).
If I was completely sold on there being no God or afterlife, I sincerly believe I would have put a gun to my head long ago.
So you're saying that life is essentially worthless, unless we get something after death? That's sure as hell uplifting.
Here's another fun thought: After death and you get to this alleged "afterlife" thing: Will it start to get boring after the first 10^959 years? (Just really give some thought to how much time that really is.) You would have enough time to observe the entire lifespan of every single atom in the entire Universe, rewinding back to the beginning of time once you've finished watching an atom go from formation to decay. You could sit and stare at a wall for 30 trillion years and not have to worry about wasting any time. At some point, I think that this would become indistinguishable from torture.
"God" says Slavery is ok. Do you?
And God's also ok with carrying punishments through generation after generation.
Wouldn't our jail system be grand if we followed the Garden of Eden precedent?
You gave birth in jail? That baby's got to stay in jail, too. The same applies to all of the baby's eventual descendents.
All of them. Forever.
And at some point, the warden decides that the inmates have really started to get out of hand, so he just exterminates all of them, except for just a small group. Then he scribes a semicircle symbol on a wall as symbol of this event, and then he'll periodically show it around to everyone, just as a friendly reminder.
But don't worry, you'll all get declared as "innocent" at some point. You just need to get a nice lethal injection.
Then your crimes will be forgiven, and you'll finally get to leave the confines of the prison. In a box.
Yeah, that sounds awesome, just the sort of treatment you'd expect from a perfectly benevolent deity.
I'm going to echo mnewsham here. IMHO it's more prideful to believe human beings are chosen/created by god to be spiritually superior to everything else in our world. It's more prideful to believe that your beliefs are absolutely true and beyond all doubt; that others who disagree are just wrong and can be ignored. It might also be said that belief in a god and in eternal life gives you a way to avoid having to answer questions about the meaning of this life (before death).
This reminded me of something that came to mind earlier this week while driving to work: "Playing God." Within the mental framework of there being all-knowing, all-powerful God: Isn't quite
incredibly arrogant to say that a mere human is capable of even approaching the level of "playing God?" I see that thrown out occasionally in discussions about abortion, cloning, or executions.
I'm assuming you consider humans as 'animals' then ? Let's get that out of the way first.
We're sure not in our own class. Our DNA is quite similar to chimpanzees, and our general form is quite similar to theirs, and there are numerous other traits shared with many other 4-limbed terrestrial vertebrates. We happen to have freakishly-large brains, long legs and bipedal locomotion, dextrous digits (something shared by many other primates), and a tendency for less body hair than other primates. We still eat like animals, drink like animals, breathe like animals, mate like animals, and die like animals. Yeah. We're
really special.
And if you look at the immense majority of our species' history, we're quite prone to behave like animals.