Atheism: The Struggle Between Good And Evil

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To me, a religion is a set of beliefs strong enough to affect the way people behave. If a belief is both popular and productive, it can spread from one person to another, and eventually unify many people under a common doctrine. Once in practice, a religion can unify, divide, or form new factions to do the same. It can promote, condemn, or change the rules in order to do so. Religion can be whatever people want it to be, and therefore be used to represent what people want it to represent. In this way, religion is a tool. It can be used as a call-to-arms, a cease-fire, a persuasive influence, a political machine, a social stabilizer, a propaganda leaflet, and much more, and has been used as such for millennia. As an individual, I do…show more content…
Instead, I believe in two intangible forces: objective good and objective evil. It is important to note that these are unseen forces, not entities as we understand them. Instead of the essence of good being an entity, I view it as a force. Evil, meanwhile, is governed by a similar, separate force struggling to combat good in a manner not unlike Manichaeism. Despite these similarities, my view of a struggle between good and evil does not involve sentient orchestrators commanding the forces of good and evil. Instead, the two forces are merely reflections of the good and evil inside people, with no set plan other than the actions people take to use…show more content…
In any human interaction, there are dark, malicious motives and there are kind, well-intended motives. Even when something is done unintentionally or impulsively, there is an original motive behind it. This evident division of motives and the consistency which it maintains is what leads me to believe that there is a governing force behind them. While good and evil are not the workings of a God and a Devil, they are similar in their nature to these symbols. Performing a good deed, for example, induces joy in both the sender and the recipient, creating a positive atmosphere for both of them. Committing an evil deed, on the other hand, may induce satisfaction in the moment, but usually leads negative consequences. In this way, good and evil, or the good and evil within people’s motives, have orchestrated every person-to-person interaction in

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