Does your religion make you a better person?

[flamingjimmy 10]

Isnt this an oxymoron? Wouldn't you cease to be a good person as soon as you do an evil act.

 

No not at all. Or at least I don't think so. Being 'evil' is about not just actions but intent.

 

Easy example:

Good person who's a Christian. Tells homosexuals that they're going to hell causing significant distress in an honest attempt to save their 'soul'.

 

Alternate example: Good Jewish person, hires someone to mutilate the genitals of his son for religious reasons, because he thinks god wants him to. Evil act committed by good person because of religion.

 

There you have it, good people doing evil thing without necessarily being evil themselves.

Edited March 10, 2016 by flamingjimmy

[sutty27 10]

It was a bit fuzzy, but you must give us the benefit of the doubt since we were in the pub, not the Oxford Union.

 

Things about generally being nice to people, food banks, taking poor children on holiday, respecting family. That sort of thing. She wasn't saying that I and my other friend were worse people specifically, but she might have been being polite, being a better person.

 

When an atheist does those things they are doing it out of the goodness in their hearts, when a religious person does those things they are doing it for selfish reasons and reward.

[la_emme 10]

You make you a better person.

[Isabelle 10]

I remember reading this article a bit back:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/religious-children-less-altruistic-secular-kids-study

 

I have a theory about this. Religious people can be more judgmental, therefore they are not nicer people. And what it wrong with just doing nice things to be nice? You shouldn't need the reason of doing it for a supposedly real deity.

[RootsBooster 24]

Well religion made him a better person, absolutely regardless of whether anything else may have had the same effect it was religion that did it for him.

 

So the answer to your question is yes, religion can make you a better person.

 

If you don't accept that then I would suggest that you started this topic as a means of trolling.

 

Perhaps your question should be can religion provide an exclusive happiness unavailable by any other means?

 

I believe the question was "Does religion make you a better person?" not "Can religion make you a better person?"

 

There's rather a large difference between the two questions.

 

---------- Post added 11-03-2016 at 13:28 ----------

 

You make you a better person.

 

No you !

[Berberis 10]

No not at all. Or at least I don't think so. Being 'evil' is about not just actions but intent.

 

Easy example:

Good person who's a Christian. Tells homosexuals that they're going to hell causing significant distress in an honest attempt to save their 'soul'.

 

Alternate example: Good Jewish person, hires someone to mutilate the genitals of his son for religious reasons, because he thinks god wants him to. Evil act committed by good person because of religion.

 

There you have it, good people doing evil thing without necessarily being evil themselves.

 

I understand what you are saying but your examples are not really correct.

 

The first of the person telling a homosexual they are going to hell. Is this evil? Im not condoning it, but I dont think its evil either. Religious belief of subjective and so the two people in this example will no doubt have differing opinions on religion. A person who believes homosexuals are going to hell, and are homosexual himself will not accept their sexuality and would not identify themselves as homosexual.

 

Your second example of the mutilation of the sons genitals again is only evil in your opinion. The father is not committing an evil act in his opinion and that of the community he resides. This does not mean it is not wrong, but it does not make the act evil.

 

Now the previous example of Murder is evil. No one in our society would argue against this. It's premeditated and its executed in sound mind. Thus, a good person cannot commit murder without becoming evil.

[Eric Arthur 10]

I believe the question was "Does religion make you a better person?" not "Can religion make you a better person?"

 

There's rather a large difference between the two questions.

 

Thank you for noticing

 

---------- Post added 11-03-2016 at 14:04 ----------

 

Now the previous example of Murder is evil. No one in our society would argue against this. It's premeditated and its executed in sound mind. Thus, a good person cannot commit murder without becoming evil.

From the USA to Saudi to Ir@n, there's an awful lot of religious state approved murder going on in the guise of the death penalty.

[GhostRiders 15]

I believe the question was "Does religion make you a better person?" not "Can religion make you a better person?"

 

There's rather a large difference between the two questions.

 

Fair point, and in fact that makes the question much more subjective and a lot more difficult to answer.

 

For example, we could say that 'John' joins the C of E, he pays lip service when he has to, does what he has to in public then goes home and instead of continuing to follow the tenants of the religion becomes a right old rotter behind closed doors.

 

'Martin' however joins the same church and lives his entire life following the teachings with an honest intention of living his life in accordance with them.

 

From the outside it's very difficult for anyone to say that it's the religion that's made them a better person, they both 'appear' to be better people because of the religion* but one of them is essentially not following the teachings and one is. In this case only the individual Knows the answer to the question.

 

*I'm not saying that following the CofE makes you a better person I'm just giving a black and white example of the difficulty regarding the specifics of the question. It may well be equally that the person paying lip service is the nice guy and the person following the teachings is a rotter. I can say religion can make you a better person (as I've seen it in action) yet.i can't say that by default it does. To make it infinitely more complicated it could be the case that religion 'a' makes you a better person but religion 'b' doesn't.

 

I'm not sure such a question can be quantifiably answered because of the vast number of variables involved.

[la_emme 10]

Fair point, and in fact that makes the question much more subjective and a lot more difficult to answer.

 

For example, we could say that 'John' joins the C of E, he pays lip service when he has to, does what he has to in public then goes home and instead of continuing to follow the tenants of the religion becomes a right old rotter behind closed doors.

 

'Martin' however joins the same church and lives his entire life following the teachings with an honest intention of living his life in accordance with them.

 

From the outside it's very difficult for anyone to say that it's the religion that's made them a better person, they both 'appear' to be better people because of the religion* but one of them is essentially not following the teachings and one is. In this case only the individual Knows the answer to the question.

 

*I'm not saying that following the CofE makes you a better person I'm just giving a black and white example of the difficulty regarding the specifics of the question. It may well be equally that the person paying lip service is the nice guy and the person following the teachings is a rotter. I can say religion can make you a better person (as I've seen it in action) yet.i can't say that by default it does. To make it infinitely more complicated it could be the case that religion 'a' makes you a better person but religion 'b' doesn't.

 

I'm not sure such a question can be quantifiably answered because of the vast number of variables involved.

 

I think there are no bad or good religions. There are bad people who take it to the level of extremism, twist it and use it for their own benefit. Every religion aims to make people better, no religion teaches to kill, rape or deprive people of their belongings, honour killings or everything else that is done these days to hurt people.

[dutch 68]

A good person can enter a bad religion and make something beautiful of it, or get killed by other angry members.

 

A bad person can enter a so called good religion and turn it into something hellish.

 

If a person changes when entering a religion it is more likely the willingness of that individual to move on that makes them different.

[apelike 10]

I believe the question was "Does religion make you a better person?" not "Can religion make you a better person?"

 

There's rather a large difference between the two questions.

 

In the topic title it actually says "Does your religion make you a better person" which presupposes that you have a religion to follow.

 

As I have none then I cant answer.

[flamingjimmy 10]

I understand what you are saying but your examples are not really correct.

In a way they are, because...

 

Religious belief [is] subjective

...as are the concepts of good and evil.

the two people in this example will no doubt have differing opinions on religion. A person who believes homosexuals are going to hell, and are homosexual himself will not accept their sexuality and would not identify themselves as homosexual.

 

Your second example of the mutilation of the sons genitals again is only evil in your opinion. The father is not committing an evil act in his opinion and that of the community he resides. This does not mean it is not wrong, but it does not make the act evil.

 

Now the previous example of Murder is evil. No one in our society would argue against this. It's premeditated and its executed in sound mind. Thus, a good person cannot commit murder without becoming evil.

 

Wrong again in my opinion. Let's say a good person who's a Christian stones someone to death for one of the various sins it says it's cool to do that for in the bible. IMO that would be murder, and evil, yet if they were doing it because they believed that the perfect goodly being commanded it then they wouldn't really be evil themself would they?

 

Nitpicking my examples is one thing but as far as I can tell you haven't engaged with the larger point about evil people requiring intent to do bad and not just doing evil things by accident or due to a lack of understanding/different subjective opinion about whether mutilating the genitals of small children is a good thing .

Edited March 11, 2016 by flamingjimmy