It's irrational to ask why there is a universe. Existence exists because it exists. There's no reason why it exists, it just does.
There is no real meaning behind it.
That would be wishful thinking, but highly unreasonable, considering that our universe exists and acts according to almost perfect laws of nature. Its only natural that the question on whether it has meaning or not would occupy the minds of humans.
And their deeds are always discovered. And if they aren't discovered, they could've achieved so much more in life if they chose a virtuous path. Lying and cheating really doesn't get you far, honestly.
A robber for example that never gets caught might do pretty well for himself, but he probably has to move all the time, constantly is worried about getting found out, doesn't have good friends or family to rely on since people who steal only attract other people who steal, or people who are too weak to avoid getting stolen from, if he has a conscience he'll be miserable because he knows he's not a good person, etc... and that's assuming he doesn't get found out. If you make a living by stealing from people it's inevitable that people will find out and will punish you for it.
That is anecdotal and not empirically true, because there are a large amount of crimes (such as goverment corruption) that go unpunished, unnoticed and largely without problems. You are just stating that the actions of commiting a crime my bring some form of hassle, but that isn't punishment, and its not distinct from any other sort of annoyance inherent to any type of honest job.
I don't understand how being an atheist would make you think that you should kill whoever you want. There's no reason to kill them unless they are harming you or people you love. And yes, people can actually be moral without God. Explain how Christians can pick and choose from the bible??? They know what is right or wrong simply from the little reason they exercise.
We already decide what is right and wrong. The people that wrote the bible, hate to break it to you, didn't write it because God told them. They made up their own morals and pretended that God told them.
I agree, why keep a growing cancer in your body if you don't want it. You shouldn't keep it. Religion forces you to keep something you don't want. What a bunch of nonsense.
You are sort of answering your own question of killing whoever you want, by comparing an unborn child with a cancerous growth. You have given yourself the authority to classify human life as either "worthy" or "parasitic" already. And you are doing so based on your perceived moral value.
What you are doing is simply trying to dehumanise the subject, by comparing it to cancer. In essence, you are applying a different biological category to a human, so it suits your needs. And your claim behind it is probably what you call "reason". This already shows that the value of human life to you, is never absolute, but rather changing according to what you desire. And given your desires are based on what you call "reason", how you can state that atheism does not devolve into harming others is just mind blowing.
Christians are supposed to follow the New Testament, most of the times, which in many situations replaces some of the dogma from the Old Testament. Whether it is divinely inspired or not, matters little, because the core principle of christianity is of mutual and equal respect among equal people.
Not true. People always have the choice to think for themselves if they choose to. I don't see how believing in God is any better or any different than believing in the state. You should be jsut as critical of religion if not more so because a religious authority figure doesn't even exist.
Oh really? What makes you say so?
Not true. Atheism doesn't lead you to that.
There's many reasons to not kill inferior people. My first reason, you respect their life because you expect them to respect your right to life.
The more people there are, living freely, the better the world is not only other's but for you too. Killing people doesn't help you.
Again, that is anecdotal. The reasons you can profess, in an atheist darwinian world, are only valid as long as the existance of the individual suits your needs, or does not directly interfere with your life. But if the individual generated some sort of problem or inconvinience to you, there is no reason to stop you from killing him because there is no consequences.
So just because you can enumerate reasons as to why peace may be more profitable than violence to an atheistic world view, there is no reason as to why not forgo those reasons if peace becomes a problem.
A state can affect everyones life. The personal belief of other people does not. Whether you believe in a God or not does not directly affect me, at most what it would affect me would be your own personal decisions regarding your interpretation of that religion. But then again the person affecting me, would be you and not your God. When it comes to the state and goverment, your ideas of goverment directly affect me.
Belief is untangible, but by creating a living God in the form of the state, you are creating your own undoing, by giving an entity godlike influence. By removing God from the equation, humans try to fill this gap by creating the "all protecting, all governing and powerful state".
