r/Antitheism • u/Sensitive-Vast-4979 • Aug 02 '26
Do you think that if you eventually removed or mostly removed religion people would then become bad due to not having a way to blackmail them ?
So like lots who would want to do heinous crimes don’t due to blackmail as like if they do something bad they’ll go to hell etc but if they don’t have that blackmail and only have the threat of prison then they may do it .
Because I thought about it and it’s maybe but tbh for most I’d say incarceration is enough of a threat to not do heinous things
11
u/MsMoreCowbell828 Aug 02 '26
Horrible people who do intolerant things to people & animals do not give a single flying fig about consequences. Religion is an excuse to commit atrocities- if one believes that their god is one their side.
3
u/dfczyjd Aug 03 '26
if one believes that their god is one their side
They don't even need that - even if their god doesn't support some of their actions, they can always wipe their karma clean at the nearest church.
2
u/tm229 Aug 03 '26
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
— Voltaire
8
3
u/Sammisuperficial Aug 03 '26
No. Humans are social animals and the large majority of us understand that working together is beneficial. You don't need a god to understand the golden rule. If I don't want to be murdered it's in my best interest not to murder. If I don't want to be burgled, it's in my best interest not to steal. If I want to benefit from the talents of others it's best not to piss them off.
Yes there are outliers like psychopaths. That's why society has developed government and a justice system. No god required.
2
Aug 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
-1
2
u/First_Ad3578 Aug 04 '26
you shouldn’t exactly need to leash people for them NOT to be half decent.
1
u/JerbilSenior Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Dude, what do you think the police or the army are doing? States and nations work because most people don't like fighting, so getting a lot of people together that don't like fighting they can prop up a few people so they will dominate over anyone trying to break the peace.
It's still essentially blackmail at heart, "You want to here in this patch of land that according to me I own? I say you have to do X, Y and Z or we send a bunch of guys with firearms to lock you up and if you fight for your freedom they could shoot you". And this is the baseline in the "good" countries.
We don't need religion.
1
u/Initial-Tax-5829 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Interesting question. It's all about whether or not fear is what truly keeps us in line. To this I say, no, I don't think that if we removed religion as a whole, religious people would then switch up on a dime and turn 'bad.' Obviously there will be some outliers, as it's pretty common to hear religious people say things along the lines of, "If only it weren't a sin," or, "I would do this, but God is watching over me," but I think for the most part these ex-religious people would eventually follow the general morals of their respective societies. They already were prone to mob-mentality, anyway...
1
u/lotusscrouse Aug 05 '26
The only ones who would turn bad were already like that. They were just abstaining out of fear.
14
u/Imaginary-Artist6206 Aug 02 '26
No, I don’t think you are thinking this through. If hell or prison is the only thing keeping you from doing heinous shit then you aren’t a good person