Are atheists more genuinely sincere?

Somehow I suspect this study reported yesterday will make an appearance here. Ooops. It just did.

What you’re asking about is at the core of what it means to be “good”. It’s why some theists and some atheists can talk past each other during discussions of morality. There are some theists that believe something is “good” or “moral” if it has been declared so by god. Secular approaches to these questions look towards suffering (human or otherwise) when we are considering these questions, so we end up using the same terms to mean different things.

Also, there are theists who do take a secular approach to ethics, so it’s difficult to make a complete generalization here.

Edit: To be clear, what I mean by the “theists who take a secular approach” is that some theists look at the bible’s approach to homosexuality or stoning non-virgins on their wedding night and use secular (non-religious) reasoning to determine that these are not correct moral teachings.

There is no way to measure a person’s goodness or reason for being good.

Good people and bad people and everything in between has nothing to do with religion.

So they would never, ever, do something like boosting their own self esteem in front of a group by belittling others?

Assume you study a group of atheists who all see a situation of someone in need: some will be moved by compassion to help, others won’t. Now you expose a group of theists to the same situation: some will be moved by compassion to help, some won’t, and some number of others will help, but only because they think they’re expected to.

If you compare the atheists who help to the theists who help, you’ll find that 100% of the atheists are motivated by compassion, while some lower percentage of theists are motivated purely by compassion. You could interpret that as meaning that theists are “less sincere”, or you could see it as showing that theism prompts some to act who otherwise wouldn’t.

Same data, different spin.

Ones beliefs have no impact on their character if they have character issues to begin with.
Plenty of disordered people of all belief systems. Ego does not discriminate and both atheists and religious people are more than capable of manipulating their beliefs in a self serving manner. Ego is ego and the need to be “seen” in a particular way, as more right, more moral, more whatever is an ego trait not a trait of belief.

I’ll loan you money, house sit for you, watch your pets, and give you rides….But if you let me babysit for you, I will eat your baby.

@Blackberry Not if I invite you over just to eat you.

@mowens :/

Ephesians 2:8–9
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Personally I don’t really care what someone’s motivations for being “good” are.. we could certainly use some more of it.. regardless of the reason.

There seem to be a couple atheists in particular who are as virulently intolerant as those fundamentalist Christians. The verbiage is different but the rant is basically the same. Intolerant, vitriolic and hostile about those who hold points of view which differ from their own.

Why can’t people all just be what they are and tolerant and uncritical of others?

Motivations for ones actions mean everything, yes, I have little doubt about that. Being raised as a Christian though we were taught that we can never be good enough regardless of our works, which is why we need a ‘savior’ (someone took my verse already).

Many of the eastern and pagan religions tend to emphasize works over faith, and that we’re our own saviors, so to speak. If what you’re saying is true than that person is full of negation either way. We should be good because we want to be good, not to save our own skin.