Does Someone Have to be Religious to Be a Good Person? (page 3)

reneeisorym

Rom 3:10 "as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one;"

Where the athiest will claim to be "good", the Christian should claim to be wretched.

I claim to be more and more like Christ daily but I will never be anything but wretched and imperfect and an impossible failure until the resurrection. That doesn't make me depressed and gloomy about my state but instead thankful for the grace of God.

So about your question:
I can't speak for anyone but myself. As long as I was a JW and trying so hard to be perfect, I failed miserably. I am personally astounded at how much easier it is to live by Christian morals. I now have a "Helper" and Christ to help me along.

(Note: None of these changes happened overnight!)

I always had a serious problem with greed as a JW. Now I have to try hard to not offend people by giving them things when they are needy.

I always wanted to smoke and would sneak around. After I became a Christian, I never even tried to quit smoking - I just gradually lost the desire. (I did pray to stop smoking because I felt like I was depending on cigarettes rather than prayer. It wasn't the actual act of smoking that I felt wrong about.)

I was a drunk. (drank until drunk twice a week) I gradually lost the desire and now just one is all I ever want. I just quit drinking cold turkey. (I was by no means an alcoholic though!)

I was quite the fornicator. Overtime, that desire went away as well.

I lost my temper. I began to think about what Jesus would do and pray and I haven't lost my temper in a couple of years now. (I would cry, scream, throw fits, hide in closets, pull out wads of my own hair, throw things, break things)

So there -- I don't know about anyone else but it changed my life dramatically. And it had nothing to do with fear. I was MUCH more fearful as a JW. Now the only fear I have is displeasing the Father that I love so much.

Quirky1

In the eyes of a witless or other religions you are required to have religion. I do not see it that way. There are far more good people, organizations, groups in the world than the witless want you to believe.

I have come to the conclusion there are more good people than bad whether they believe in a higher authority or not. Whether you are good or bad as a person is your own personal decision.

I choose good - I like the benefits of it.

Hope4Others

Good or just kind and decent towards others...I've met a lot of "So called Worldly People" that are super,

where they had no religious background. People genuinely are not all that bad.

hope4others

caliber

If goodness means loving, kind and proper values then I think you learn most all you need to

know on your mothers knee....whether she is religious or not !

Caliber

fifi40

I think when you strip us all down that most folk are not to different we are just at various stages of lifes journey with different baggage. I dont think many folk set out to hurt, insult or upset others it just sometimes happens that way.

What you say or do to one person might upset them but would be water of a ducks back to others.We all deal with things differently, we all have different perspectives and to try and judge who is good, decent or caring regardless of religion, is an enormous task to say the least.

Take for example complete strangers on a board like this.............how can we possibly know anothers true self, their motivation or just how good, decent and caring they really are. Sometimes the things we dont see are the things that count!

Barbie Doll

Being a "good" person (and this is a subjective concept), has nothing to do with religion. There are "good" people and assholes in every religion and among the non-religious as well.

I lived in a children Home and got moved around a lot. I love to help people to make them happy, I don,t like to see people unhappy like I was. You don,t have to be religious to be good.

Some of your religious people are narrow minded and think they are better then everybody else. I know people that are religious and they do bad things. In the Bible there is a lot of killing. The Religious people think that is OK.

Barbie Doll

Restrangled---------Happy BIRTHDAY

Awakened at Gilead

Good religious people... may be bad persons..

Heck, all the good JWs I know won't talk to me... what's so good about that?

I consider myself to be a kind agnostic. I like to do good to others, but not to witless to them or because some god is dangling a carrot in front of me...

Peace Out to you Mr Flipp.

A@G

betterdaze

***Being kind and decent toward all should be its own reward.***

I approve of Sylvia's comment. :–)

~Sue

betterdaze

...And I approve of celebrating our birthdays, too.

Have a great one, restrangled!

~Sue

Does Someone Have to be Religious to Be a Good Person?

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