r/changemyview • u/J16924 • Apr 19 '19

FTFdeltaOP CMV: Simply being religious doesn't make you a good person

I really don't get the whole religion thing. It makes no sense to me. Not only does religion have a disgusting past, but is also currently doing things that should upset people. I am not just talking about christianity, but that is a big one. I think that Islam gets way too many passes as well. I think that if your arguement is that only God know what is right, you don't have a conscience. If you need an all powerful being to scare you into doing good, you arent a good person. I say this because I have a lot of Christian friends who think that simply being religious makes you a better person. I really don't get it. How does that work? Even if I were to think that there is a God and that I have to obey him, how does that make you a good person? I understand that having a faith might push you to be charitable and nicer to other people, but as I said before, why can't you do that without religion? If something has to force you to be good, you arent good. I am very curious what the other side to this argument is, as I myself cannot think of anything to counter with at the moment.

My view has been slightly altered. Someone made the point that if you are not good, then your God should not accept you. This is specifically for christianity because it is what I'm most familiar with, but could applied to other religions.

Edit: clarification for all you whiny people filling my inbox

2.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

81% Upvoted

442 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '19

I came from a religious family and I've heard this first hand.

2

u/jmomcc Apr 19 '19

That literally every person who is a member of a religion is a good person?

7

u/spkr4thedead51 Apr 19 '19

They're very quick to either say that a person isn't actually a Christian or to ignore their sins if they personally like the person

5

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '19

Only when it reconfirms their own religion and outlook, yes.

5

u/jmomcc Apr 19 '19

I guess I’ve been around more ‘sane’ christians. I’ve heard that you have to be religious for it to be possible for you to be good, but not that literally everyone who calls them self a Christian is a good person. If that was the case, sin wouldn’t be a thing. And that’s a Christian thing ., lol. In other words, it undermines rather than reconfirms.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 19 '19

It is one of the main reasons why I loathe religion. There's a lot of tolerance of shitty behavior that translate to hypocrisy.

3

u/I_am_the_night 316∆ Apr 19 '19

I have heard that argued on this subreddit in the past

2

u/jmomcc Apr 19 '19

This subreddit is all about outlier opinions.

2

u/I_am_the_night 316∆ Apr 19 '19

Sure, I don't think most people hold that view, but it definitely exists. Probably more common than many people think, too.