A naughty attention grabbing heading I admit - I'm sorry, just couldn't resist. Obviously we all know atheists and agnostics have nothing in common with Psychopaths.
In fact I would hold that atheists and agnostics generally have better functioning consciences than religionists. I would also hold that most religionists are not Psychopaths - although a higher percentage of Psychopaths likely concentrate in the leadership of religious groups.
However as a lay person (not a Psychiatrist) I really am interested to understand how our atheist and agnostic friends on JWN reason about Psychopaths (persons with no conscience).
A random list of questions come to mind:
What is a conscience? Where does it come from? Is it normal to have one? Is it abnormal to not have one? By what standard is normal determined? Where does this standard come from? How could something as fundamental, useful and important as a conscience have arisen randomly? How is a conscience lost and why? Why does loss (or compromise) of conscience result in aberration, deviance, evil, crime, violence, inhumanity and dysfunction? Does such a complex, awesome and partly intangible (metaphysical) compass (a conscience) not require design by a designer, who intended humans to be semi-autonomous and self-directed within a complex, functional, healthy and sustainable system?
(I remember reading that 50% of violent crimes are committed by Psychopaths).
Love to read your thoughts.