h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why should atheists trust believers? I frankly am very tired of the badmouthing of anyone who chooses atheism and dumps, spams , and browbeats every believer they meet, in h2g2 and in RL. I am not in denial about how hypocritical or destructive believers can be. However, most religions teach that people need to be more considerate of their neighbours and not be so selfish and greedy.

Even science is coming around to the conclusion that believers could possibly be GOOD for society for whatever reason . This article from a self avowed atheist in Salon.com describes this research. I apologise for the derogatory cracks the author makes about Ireland.
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/01/dont_trust_the_godless/?source=newsletter

To explain herself the author states, 'Well, trustworthiness is a different thing altogether from intellect, and I suppose I’m ever the social pragmatist in my dealings with other people.'
To be human people need to cut everyone else slack and avoid being self righteous. Forgiveness and mercy are underrated virtues no matter what your philosophy is. I challenge readers to think of all the situations you have ever been in that a stranger has come to your assistance. Think how different real life would be, if everyone acted like this.

The research the author refers to appears to indicate that people behave more considerately if they think somebody's watching. Interesting, I hadn't thought of that.

I wonder if you could get the same effect by convincing people that an ethically more evolved group of extraterrestrials were monitoring the internet and critiquing the behaviour of users on Planet Earth?

By the way, I don't know how religious that cab driver was in Dublin, you know, the one who picked us up and took us to his family's B&B that time. I know why we trusted him, though: he had his little boy with him. We didn't expect him to be up to mischief with a well-behaved kid in tow.

So maybe add 'family values' to the list of reasons people act well?

This is so. That boy's sister was an Irish princess and he had aspirations to be a bookie which is a lot more savoury in Ireland than it is in the States.

Actions are what we should judge, regardless of whether they are motivated by a desire to please a god or just because it feels right. Atheism is never an excuse to be nasty or belittling of others; there is no excuse for that behaviour.

I'm pretty sure that believers tend to succeed and make places better, because of the kinship and community they create. The same could be said of any sort of club, I suppose, but the mandate of most religions is to look out for others, regardless of how they implement it. Win!

I seem to remember an article in New Scientist that proved there was an evolutionary bias towards belief, because people who work together are more likely to survive than those who don't.

I had mor to add but I am having difficulty stringing together a sentence today!

I hope it's just the weather, Vip.

You know, that's a good point, about people working together. Last night, I was reading about Gobekli Tepe (there should be an umlaut on that 'o', it's Turkish), the world's oldest temple.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html

It's something like 11,000 years old. Apparently, it was built by hunter-gatherers. Right in the place where, shortly thereafter, they started growing grain and domesticating animals...

The Big Step that led to us.

The conclusion of the researchers is that people have been wrong about the idea that survival came first and religion later. Apparently, working together to do something you consider transcendent leads to the kind of cooperation that produces spin-off technology.

Okay, when I read it, I said, 'Kind of like NASA and Tang,' I will admit. But hey...

Dmitri and VIP. Well put.

Hi everyone, Elektra, thanks a lot for this. The issue is far bigger than most people seem to realise or understand. In my view religion is vital for the ongoing prosperity of humanity as a whole. But it has to be the right kind of religion. In my view it has to be about love and compassion. Looking in my own country, I see many religious people who do not have much of that, which doesn't help much. There seem to be so many misconceptions about religion, from all sides. There are justified criticisms of just about every religion out there, and there are also justified criticisms of atheism. I wish I could say more ... I'd have to write a book ... and I don't really have the courage.

I wonder if you could get the same effect by convincing people that an ethically more evolved group of extraterrestrials were monitoring the internet and critiquing the behaviour of users on Planet Earth?

From DG above.

I think that is the ticket, but can humans ever become less species-centric and temporally provincial enough TO GET THAT?

Would that make us want to become better? Why are humans here anyway? We don't seem to be good for much of anything, maybe that is why people fear ETs. We don't want to be shown up by right thinking and acting aliens.

from my P/S and it's about me

I have the greatest respect for everyone on this planet for their own PEACEFUL religious beliefs and faiths, but I myself am a Aethiest, I do not believe in any god/creator..I do not push my non belief on to others - therefore I do not want others to push their's onto me.

I can't believe in reincarnation - with my luck, I'd come back as myself

Around here, people mainly seem to use their religion to get up other people's nose.

There are some atheists that give atheism a band name. They appear to be bandwaggoners who haven't properly looked at the band waggon they're on.

bad name rather than band name. Oooo I do love those mind misallocations.

"They appear to be bandwaggoners who haven't properly looked at the band waggon they're on."

Nicely put, and equally applicable to the religious... if not more so.

It's probably human nature. I have been reading about the on-going destruction of Timbukto in Mali by "deranged islamists", while the world looks on in indifference. If the secular / christian west is able to justify bombing Libya, maybe it can justify a little bit of tough intervention and diplomacy in nearby Mali.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2018589317_webmali03.html

Okay, that's outrageous. And much like the damage done by Crusaders back in the day.

Or the original Iconoclasts. Cut it out, people. A vandal by any other name is still a vandal.