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Are you talking about atheists, as in people who believe positively "there is no God" - or just "non-religious" people in general, like Founding Fathers who were deists but not part of organized religion.
Are you talking about laws or criminal justice - or about punishment for the wicked after death?
You need to be more specific. This question's like asking "Do Christians believe in having fun"?
Actually it's as tricky as asking, "Do Atheist believe in right and wrong"?
The answer varies from Atheist to Atheist.
So you can answer the question they way you like it. It's an open discussion. You can respond whatever comes natural to you.
I agree, we are here and we should deal with it, but dealing with it is not hoping that an invisible being will make everything ok someday. Dealing with it is making a difference in the here and now.
If someone is holding my feet over the fire, there is no real choice. "Believe or you will tortured forever." That is not a choice, it is a threat. Just like if someone holds a gun to my head demanding something or they will kill me.
See, this is where the difference of opinion lies.
You start off again with "Do or else" position.
I would like to step back and think like this.
My feet are NOT held over fire.
I am standing on a diving board - there is a pool of fresh water on my right and a pit of fire on my left. And I am asked to make a choice which pool I want to jump in.
OR
To slightly elaborate it.
Say I find myself in a hallway where I see a door at the other end.
I see a few instructional booklets on a table near me.
I can choose NOT to read any booklet.
I can choose to read ALL or a few booklets.
From there, it's possible that no booklet makes sense to me.
Or if they make sense to me, I pick the best one that I can understand.
In my case, I chose an instructional book that tells me, there are two lines on the floor in this hallway.
There is a red line and there is a blue line.
If you follow the blue line - which perhaps requires taking some organized steps - and it's OK if you make mistakes, you can try again. But if you follow the blue line, you may end up in a soothing and comfortable place.
If you follow the red line which comes with least restrictions - there is a chance that you may end up in a place you may not like a whole lot.
So from this instructional book, I chose to follow the blue line.
I guess there is a small common ground between me as a believer and you as an Atheist.
Did we want to be on that diving board ? Perhaps not.
Did we want to be in that hallway? Perhaps not.
But then again, since we are here, lets deal with it.
So let me take the liberty of updating your statement with blue text, the way I look at it.
"Believe and TRY to obey, and you will be extremely pleased or disobey and take your chance to be held accountable for your actions.
See, this is where the difference of opinion lies.
You start off again with "Do or else" position.
I would like to step back and think like this.
I think the real difference is that you believe the originator of the choice to be either morally beyond questioning, or somehow a phenomenon much like nature.
We don't blame a natural phenomenon, we just work around them. But a person, a decision making, volitional entity who chooses to put me in a bad position, I can blame. Ultimately you are approaching God as an it, a force of nature, a universal law, whereas we are approaching God as a being with a will who chooses and controls.
If God is a volitional being who is all powerful, if he is not bound by some higher law than himself, then criticizing him for the cruel, vindictive, and evil position he is placing mankind in (worship me or I will torture you!) is a perfectly reasonable response.
After all, as an all powerful being he had literally an infinite number of options of how to deal with mankind. Any choice he made would be made for no other reason than his own will, his own pleasure. Meaning he has chosen to design a world where he can torture the majority of its inhabitants, just because he felt like it...
-NoCapo
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