• gregorum
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    6 months ago

    This person is openly telling you that the only thing stopping them from being a shitty person is some myth about otherworldly punishment after they die.

    Which, of course, means they’ll be juuuust as shitty as they believe they can get away with.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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      6 months ago

      Yeah, the “why be good if there’s no God/Hell” is a disturbing as fuck argument, because it essentially says that if they decide that their god wants them to start killing, they’ll do it.

      I’m good because if I do something bad, I feel bad about it. It’s pretty simple.

      • gregorum
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        6 months ago

        exactly. i understand that doing bad things is bad because i feel guilt and shame when i do bad things. conversely, i feel good when i do good things. I also understand the broader implications of both-- not to mention that i have empathy and can see the impact of my actions upon others while caring as well.

        i don’t need a fairy tale to threaten me with eternal torture in order to not be a sociopath.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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          6 months ago

          That’s the problem. These people lack empathy. They don’t feel happy when they make someone else happy unless they get something more than that out of it.

          • gregorum
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            6 months ago

            because they’ve been taught that life is a zero-sum game: if anyone else’s life improves - even just a little - it must necessarily come at the cost of someone else’s life getting worse. this isn’t true, of course, but they can’t see life as any other way, so the ideas of equality and working together to improve society are antithetical to their worldview. they’re to be fought. They have an “every man for himself” philosophy, and it’s nothing but selfish, self-centered solipsism.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPM
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              6 months ago

              And it also makes them treat their kids like shit.

              Why make your kid feel good if you don’t gain anything?

              • gregorum
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                6 months ago

                it also teaches their kid that selfish motivations and material rewards are the only things of value, and that they’re worth liying, cheating, and even stealing for-- as long as you don’t get caught, because right and wrong are only a matter of the consequences one may personally face. and, even then, it’s a cost-benefit analysis. again, the zero-sum game.

          • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 months ago

            If you and I have an interaction that leaves us both happy, that’s socialism and GOPJesus frowns on socialism.

      • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 months ago

        I had a coworker catholic who both said that statement, and also argued animals had no souls, so no one should ever get in trouble for animal abuse. Along with his ridiculously heated response to any government involvement in Healthcare, and the way he got close to yelling when discussing these topics while also claiming he was just being logical, not emotional. Why yes he did call women emotional, how did you know?

        People like him scare me, because it sounds like if he could use some religious context to say I didn’t have a soul, he’d probably come to the same conclusion he did about dogs.

    • Dojan@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Yeah that’s my takeaway from that argument as well. If you have to be threatened by some vague notion of a future punishment in order to not be a complete dickwad, you’re clearly not a good person.

      Why be good if there’s no hell? Because to live is to suffer. Society sucks. Accepting that, working past it, and being kind to those around you makes everything slightly more bearable. You are to be kind to others because it’s the right thing to be.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Happened to a relative of mine, kind of. Went on a drug and debauchery spree. Not the fun way. Hard drugs, seriously addictive. Stole from the family, we all disowned them. Ended up hitting someone while driving under the influence and killing them. Went to jail, supposedly got sober, but I’m still no-contact.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      also the bible says genocide is ok and its ok to do all sorts of things to folks who aren’t your “neighbor”