NO resurrection, no 70 virgins, no 7 millions JW's living for thousand of years, no coming
back as dog or cat you are dead and done.
Would crime rate go up if we were 100% positive this is the only life???
by James Mixon 13 Replies latest watchtower bible
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punkofnice
Goodness knows. There are always lunatics about. -
Finkelstein
No because there is in most civilizations man made laws to deter certain social behaviors.
The fear of man can be just as effective than the fear of god, perhaps even more so.
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Island Man
No.
Scandinavian countries have some of the highest percentages of atheists, of all countries in the world. But their crime rate is one of the lowest.
Most humans are good people. Religious persons who sincerely believe that fear of God is the only thing holding people back from anarchy - those religious persons are inherently lawless and immoral persons who know that they themselves are only being good because of fear of God and they are projecting their own lawless predispositions unto the rest of society.
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DesirousOfChange
But there would surely be more early deaths. Why not "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!........for tomorrow........"
Doc
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Finkelstein
Another false assertion Doc, in these modern times human health awareness is instilled into most mainstream societies. You don't require a belief in a god to stay and live healthy or be aware about the state of human health.
There's that dam education that the WTS's leaders warned their members about.
The WTS would much more effective into controlling people if it destroyed Universities and Colleges where education is unregulated and ongoing.
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OneEyedJoe
As the saying goes, you will always have good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. For good people to do bad things, that takes religion.
While some people may think that their belief in god is what keeps them from being a bad person, they probably attribute the good feelings that our brains give us when they behave according to their conscience to god. It's not god, it's millions of years of evolution that's trained us to cooperate towards mutual benefit. Without god/heaven/hell/72 virgins/whatever, there would be (for the vast majority of the population) no motivation to fight the instinct to be good. And as Island Man correctly pointed out - there's a ton of evidence that secular societies are much more peaceful than heavily religious ones. Removing religion removes another thing that divides people and encourages everyone to realize that we're all the same and we're all in this together and might as well make the best of it.
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NVR2L8
For some the promise of an afterlife is their reason for killing in the name of their god... -
defender of truth
For some the promise of an afterlife is their reason for killing in the name of their god...
Great point NVR2L8. While we are on the subject of lives being lost due to belief in an afterlife...
The promise of an afterlife in Paradise has been, I feel, the major factor in the decisions of many Jehovah's Witnesses who have died, or let their children die, because of refusing a blood transfusion.
Also, there seems to be no evidence to support the idea that there's any correllation between lower numbers of people with religious beliefs (which tends to include belief in an afterlife of some kind) and higher crime rates.
If there is any link, it would seem to be in the reverse:
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James Mixon
Thanks for all your comments and the article defender of truth. All should read
the article...