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Ethical Living

Who here doesn’t believe in God, but tries to behave as if they do believe in one?

jonevanmoore 4 June 28
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I live my life by Ethics tempered with Empathy.
No God is needed.

Humanist Code of Ethics

"Do no harm to the earth, she is your mother.
Being is more important than having.
Never promote yourself at another’s expense.
Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence.
Allow each person the digity of his or her labor.
Open your home to the wayfarer.
Be ready to receive your deepest dreams;
sometimes they are the speech of unblighted conscience.
Always make restitutions to the ones you have harmed.
Never think less of yourself than you are.
Never think that you are more than another."

~ Arthur Dobrin

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I would say my central moral framework is based on the idea that suffering is bad and a reduction of net suffering is the goal. This must be based on evidence and so on in order to be effective. Harm reduction. No deity needed.

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I believe in the Golden rule. Some may take that as a spiritual being or god. But I just try not to be a dick lol.

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I don't think its true that one needs a god to live in an ethical fashion. The golden rule and a basic care for the ecology of the planet give you a strong impulse to live in an ethical fashion and perhaps embrace vegetarianism.

Denker Level 7 June 29, 2018
1

I don't believe in god and try to behave as if I don't believe in god. What do you think I just said?

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Ethics and Morality, are inclusive to all people regardless of whatever sub group they wish to categorize themselves in. Like breathing, its kinda for everybody whether they want to or not

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I'm sorry, but living ethically is NOT living with respect to a belief in God. That should tell you, if you have any semblance of attention to this matter, that they are NOT the same thing because I am pretty sure that there is a mistaken notion that theistic thinking is ethical thinking, here.

Right approaches and non-sins are necessarily natural and independent of religion because language is not defined by anything but existence itself. Language is within existence and so it follows that we know its meaning.

So naturally some people know right from wrong because they would pay attention to these terms.

Now, does religion even teach ethics? Hell no. Aristotle wrote "Ethics" and many don't read it, for starters, so what would make anyone think that religion is ethical, other than through imposed, senseless assertions?

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I think that believing in a god makes you behave in a certain way. You do good because you're told you're supposed to. When you're morally challenged you do the right thing because you're afraid of your creator. If the only reason you behave as a good person is because you fear Eternal damnation then I question if you're truly a good person.

When someone drops their wallet my first instinct is to return that to them immediately because if it was me who dropped mine I would hope that person would do the same for me. Now there's another outcome to this I could have picked that wallet up and walk to the other way with no God to judge me I have no reason to feel bad correct. Not for me what if that guy was about to go have dinner with his wife and by the time he realized it was time to he didn't have his wallet now he's panicked I can't for dinner. He has no way to his parking fee when he gets back to his car.

Even though these are minor inconveniences I have still inconvenience this other person I've disrupted their day and now I have caused some sort of minor disarray that could end up being more I have no way of knowing. But because I also know this persons pain of suddenly realizing I don't have my wallet that I suddenly can't for something that I needed or there was something important in my wallet that I needed that my or my identity might be stolen. Just knowing that my actions could cause someone else pain or just a minor inconvenience it's enough for me to say that doing the right thing was to give it back. God had nothing to do with it. Pretending to believe in God had nothing to do with it. It was my own mind my own reasoning and me coming to my own conclusion on what was the right thing.

Treat others the way you think they would want to be treated.

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I doubt there is anyone on this site that fits your criteria. As for others, we are a strange lot indeed.

2

Why would anyone do that? Ethics are entirely independent of religion.

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I behave ethically regardless of whether there is a god or not. I personally do not believe there is a god, and if there was a god (such as the bible describes) I surely wouldn't act in a way as to honor that horrific deity.

I have been wronged many times by believers in the god of the bible, and as long as they confess their sins and repent to their god (rather than apologize to me) their god forgives them and they still feel they have a free pass into heaven. Doesn't seem ethical to me.

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I believe in humanity, respect, and kindness. That across everything.

Spoken like a true Humanist

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I'd rather do good things because they're good, not because there's someone watching. Besides how does one behave if, as if. Doing shit and getting forgiveness later? God doesn't give a crap about good deeds, just your devotion.

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