Some Nice People are Religious

[ll_billym]

I do not believe in God, spout any part of the Bible and I'll dismiss it as fiction.

However, some of the nicest people I know are religious, many different faiths between them but as a person they are really nice people.

Should I attribute their niceness to their religion or do I assume that they are nice people anyway and would do good even if they weren't religious?

[jno]

contrary to some people's belief that religious leaders are constantly exhorting followers to butcher each other, Christians are taught to 'love they neighbour'. But there's no way of knowing if they would have loved their neighborus anyway even had they been druids or atheists.

[birdie1971]

Jno has a very good point.

The true test of whether a religious person is 'good' or not is if that person would still continue to be a decent, honest, law-abiding member of society (assuming they already are) if it were proved tomorrow that God (and therefore heaven, hell, etc.) didn't exist.

The mere fact that a great many atheists are law-abiding, honest and kind members of society suggests to me that religious commandments prescribing acceptable morality are simply unnecessary.

[Jessi-9]

What a good question.....? I too have a religious friend who is, well the nicest kindest person I know. I would probably say their beliefs contribute. Thats just my opinion.

[birdie1971]

I don't think that anyone is 'good' because their religion tells them to be so. If you're a fundamentally rotten person who enjoys hurting others either verbally or physically than I don't think that any amount of religious instruction will adequately subdue those inherent tenancies.

I think that good people are good people despite their religious beliefs – not because of them.

[birdie1971]

Oops - “... then I don't think that any amount of religious instruction will adequately subdue those inherent tendencies.”

[jake-the-peg]

"Without religion good people would still do good things, bad people would still do bad things

But for good people to do bad things - that takes religion!" (Stephen Weinberg)

[sara3]

being nice doesn't make you religious.

being religious doesn't make you nice.

[jno]

nice quote, jake, but is it true? Do you know any nice people who've gone over to the dark side because of religiion? Can't say I do.

[sandyRoe]

The leader of the London bombers springs to mind. Apparently he was a loving father, worked with children in his community, a good chap.
But his religion led him to kill innocent people.

[jno]

sounds more like a bad person with a soft spot - the way Hitler loved dogs; didn't make him a nice person.

[Ankou]

"a religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it."

you can either criticise the religious for being nice and not strictly following dogma
or criticise them for following dogma and not being nice

the ones that follow dogma and are nice are generally disliked because they follow dogma and possess th ability to be nice and often beyond reprehension.

personally i like nce people, whether they follow islam, westlife, kerri katona, sol invictus, or manchester united. i can still like them. i just can't be doing with nasty people.

[WaldoMcFroog]

I'm fairly certain it's impossible to be nice and follow either Westlife or Kerry Katona.

[Ankou]

true, i would secretly hate them.

[beso]

The good people of religion are good in spite of their religion not because of it.
Some Nazis were really nice people too. It doesn't make what they believe any less disgusting.

[mibn2cweus]

Unfortunately, in the real world there is such a thing as being too nice or too kind. To be kind is to be of like kind. An unearned, undeserved kindness that is not reciprocated invariably has negative consequences for both the giver and receiver.

The laws of causality and of equal and opposite reaction apply no less to matters of morality. Turning the other cheek is only a virtue if you had it coming to you. Justice demands commensurate treatment for both offender and victim. A kindness bestowed blindly and without consideration is an insult to kindness bringing injury to those attempting to be kind without just cause or good reason.

Anything of value carries with it a price which demands the compensation of acknowledging respecting and honoring it for the value that it is. Goodness is not created out of thin air but arises from knowing what good is, being able to recognise it when one sees it, rewarding its creators commensurate with their production of and allegiance to it.

Evil left to its own devices is self-destructive and self-annihilating and exists only by virtue of the good that is sacrificed to its cause. Religion, in the inculcating of its dogma of worshipping sacrifice, suffering and death through the emotional blackmail of its followers, offering the less innocent an alleged escape from personal responsibility, a trapdoor to self-loathing, rendering both unable to make a proper distinction between what is in fact good and evil, is one of the main causes of and contributors to the evil so prevalent in the world today.

Reason, in providing the species that inherited the potential to discover and use it the ability to distinguish good from evil and to understand why one should be preferred over the other, is the milk of human kindness.

[flobadob]

Probably the latter. I feel most religious people are religious by habit rather than any real deep feelings for it.

[LoftyLottie]

Personally, religion did not give me my principles, and I hope I am a nice person (well I am most of the time). I grew up in a family where people were nice to each other, were nice to other people in all walks of life, and respectful. It had nothing to do with religion. I have lots of religious friends who practice various religions, in fact one of my closest friends is very religious indeed. I doubt whether it is religion that makes them nice. It is upbringing.

None of my religious friends have ever tried to push their religions at me either.

[society]

In my life's experiences I've noticed - not all religious people are nice, and not all nice people are religious.

[pugwashjw]

Jesus asked this...
(Matthew 22:37-40) He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”

If you love your neighbour, you will be nice to others...

So it really is a Bible based attitude. Whether they know it or not.