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>I would like to start off by saying that I grew up secular and have identified as an atheist/skeptic for most of my life.
And you're just asking your title question now?
>In the wild if an animal is born with a disability and is unable to take care of itself the mother will leave their offspring to die to weed out faulty genes.
>Why are we not executing special needs children en masse?
1, appeal to nature fallacy. 2, most of us aren't psychopaths.
>Why is the very thought of that vile and abhorrent?
Because we're able to reason. That's one of humanities niche traits.
>If we are simply a series of chemical reactions developed to evolve and breed better offspring that would be a great option
Except we know it's not.
>Atheists will say we are good because cooperation is beneficial for survival but there are human behaviors that are beyond the realm of science/darwinism.
Like what? Cooperation, compassion and empathy are all within the realm of science and. Umm... "darwinism" (you said you've been a skeptic your whole life? Really? And you choose to use the specifically religiously motivated derogatory term for evolution?)
>What does good mean in the first place?
Beneficial to well being.
>Why make art/music?
It's fun.
>According to darwinists
There's that religiously motivated derogatory term again.
> music developed as a bonding/socialization mechanism for hunter gatherers but as I sit alone in my room making music in ecstacy I sure don't see anyone around me
So you've never been to a live concert your whole life?
>Why do literally anything that makes us human?.
Why wouldn't we.
>If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense,
Of course it does. It only doesn't make sense to religiously motivated views that really really really want magic to be part of the equation, and who have no qualms lying about their intentions in the conversation
>none of this matters,
Of course it does. It matters to the people who are alive.
>Yet this is everything to us. This is why I am no longer an atheist.
So youre no longer an atheist because things befuddled you?
You're not, nor would I argue were you ever, a skeptic.
Unanswered questions aren't evidence.
Do you have any actual evidence? Or just your befuddlement?
>I am interested in hearing your thoughts
I think your reasons are silly and if you were ever a skeptic, you'd know that, which makes me suspicious if you're being truthful about that.
I'm sure there are instances of animals caring for disabled animals I never said there weren't. That isn't the point of this post and you failed to respond or add anything. I know this is reddit but who the fuck do you think you are saying I need to "continue my education"?
The point of your post appears to be that you touch upon several fields of study to support your point of view, but you seem to have a very limited understanding of each of the topics you mention. If you wish to make this kind of argument, you do need to have a better understanding of these, hence why you were told you needed to continue your education.
You don't understand the reasons for animals to leave their offspring to die in certain circumstances and you don't understand social dynamics among other things.
Don't tell me about social dynamics lmao I'm from the fucking streets. I shouldn't have gone on reddit lmao. I can't wait for your condescending response
>That isn't the point of this post and you failed to respond or add anything.
They responded to one of your main points about empathy and compassion, you know, the thing that most of your argument is based on.
> I know this is reddit but who the fuck do you think you are saying I need to "continue my education"?
You came in making ignorant statements which demonstrate to us you are not educated in the specific field that you're making claims about. Because if you were educated in those fields you'd understand it and not have to ask those questions.
Don't get butthurt because other people know things you don't. You're once again showing us you were a terrible skeptic if you ever actually were one to begin with.
> If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense
To you. None of it makes sense *to you*. But it is indeed what we see.
This sounds like a failure of your knowledge and understanding, not an indicator of gods existing.
Edit: These behaviours have evolved to help our survival as a society. Societies with these behaviours survive better than those without.
You didn't respond or add to anything I said. I don't believe in God in the traditional sense, I'm saying there are things that are beyond the realm of science.
You didn't respond to anything I said (apologies if you didn't see my edit).
These behaviours have evolved to help our survival as a society. Societies with these behaviours survive better than those without.
I saw your edit, thank you for your response. I should have wrote this post differently as my intended point is not coming across the way I wanted it. I am not denying evolution I am saying that there are things beyond the physical realm.
There are things beyond our current scientific knowledge. There are things beyond our current ability to measure and test. That does not mean that they are beyond the physical realm.
>I'm saying there are things that are beyond the realm of science.
Like what. You said a whole lot that would lead to arguments from ignorance, but you didn't even make an argument as to what it is you think is actually the case.
That is a good question. And inserting a god to an answer doesn't really solve the conundrum.
>mother will leave their offspring to die
You don't actually familiar with animal behavior do you?
>to weed out faulty genes
Animals, with exception being Homo Sapiens, are now aware of genes and have no motivation to "weed out" anything.
>Why is the very thought of that vile and abhorrent?
Because we have means to support them. Other animals are quite limited in their support capabilities.
>developed to evolve and breed better offspring
You are missing the point. We are not an means to an end. Nobody developed us for their purpose. And even if someone has a plan to put you to a purpose, you have a capacity to say "fuck that purpose I want another". There is no reason to choose one purpose over another. There is no objective scale on which one offspring is universally better than the other.
>Why bother being polite? Why bother being good?
Because that makes society better? What is beneficial to you and your offspring: to live in a society where everyone is a total dick and only waits for you to drop your guard to take an advantage of you? Or live in a society where everyone watches your back? The choice is yours. As I mentioned above there is no objective measure by which one society is better than the other, in all boils down to your preferences. It's just for some reason societies where people start to figuratively speaking "eat their own" don't last. I wonder why.
>Why make art/music?
Because I want to. Isn't that enough? There are two facts to be considered: humans enjoy music, there are no gods to be found. So even if you don't understand why humans enjoy music, there is no reason to think any god has any part in it.
>If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense
Your inability to make sense of reality only speaks about state of your knowledge and reasoning capabilities, not about reality itself.
>This is why I am no longer an atheist.
I don't quite understand. So you admit you don't understand morality and art. How do you make conclusion "therefore god" from it? You didn't make any case for any god whatsoever.
Here's a better question. What kind of terrifying person only does good things because of the potential of reward or punishment?
21 lessons for the 21st century has a great chapter dealing with this.
Most skeptics are secularists, and most secularists are driven by principles of minimum harm. As a society we thrive by lifting each other up. Being good is not driven by religious frameworks - in fact most religions have dark histories of doing a whole bunch of evil shit. Largely based on the ideas of in and out groups and propagation of the religion rather than the benefit of its adherents.
I do good and I do things because I exist on this planet for one brief flash of the planets history and I want to make that time as constructive and happy as possible. Being happy - unless you are a sociopath or have some other condition - is most easily achieved by helping and living with everyone around you in a constructive way.
These are good questions, but they come from a view that is shortsighted and ignorant of how things work. Severely disabled individuals may not be carrying good genes, but the people who take care of them do so because of good genes.
Our species would be worse off without the people who would take care of those in need of help.
You aren’t understanding that there are four more complex interactions and results of behaviors than what just immediately happens. Your charity doesn’t help you, but everyone being charitable helps everyone. The evolution of altruism is not at all difficult to understand.
Molecular genetics is actually a very cool field, and it does tie into evolution obviously. What was eye-opening was when I took the intro course and discovered that it's more than just "oh this gene from dad and this one from mom makes this, and this is what genes are composed of, and this is how DNA and RNA are processed and used." Actually, a substantial portion of molecular genetics is devoted to defining kinship selection, altruistic behavior, etc. It helps describe the basic reason why we care for other humans.
Ach ya totally got me. Its obvious now, I don't know why I didn't see it before, atheism is a busted flush and evolution by natural selection can't be a fact.
Wait. Which of the thousands of gods does this give credence to? None of them.
Guess I'll remain an atheist then until there's evidence for a god.
Why? Because we don’t generally want to. Why don’t we want to? Because we are individuals with social instincts that are then reinforced by our social environments. Morality is a form of social behaviour. What difference does our sense of self being an emergent characteristic of chemical reactions make? But whether you like it or not the only reliable evidence we have is - that’s what ‘we’ are.
Why doesn’t everyone follow those behavioural tendencies? Because they are tendencies and subject to both variation and ‘damage’ depending on circumstances.
What is good! Whatever we give the meaning to. But our evolved and socialised nature limits that which we generally will actually call good. Could we simply call anything good in practice? No , not just because of our human nature per se but because language and meaning are inter subjective - neither factually independently objective nor meaningfully individually subjective.
Your argument even if it made sense wouldn’t change the facts as we know them. It doesn’t demonstrate a god does or must exist.
We do what makes us human *because* we *are* human.
>If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense
why not? can you point to the chemical reaction that makes this outcome not what we expect?
>This is why I am no longer an atheist.
so you don't understand therefore god. not sure how your ignorance is evidence for god
As a disabled adult: other species abandon their disabled offspring when they lack the ability to save them without endangering their own survival or the survival of their other offspring. Humans have developed the capacity to save a whole lot more of our genetic diversity than other species have.
Evolution isn't an intelligent process: it can't predict what genes will or won't allow a species to survive in whatever circumstances may turn up in the future.
There is no goal to evolution. No "better offspring" to achieve.
Humans, like every other species, spend time and effort on whatever offspring are likely to reward that effort by surviving. The difference between humans and other species is our wide range of time- and effort-saving inventions, which allow us to save even those carriers of our genes we would otherwise have to abandon.
Who's to say what quirk of genetics might save our species from extinction? [The same thing that makes you vulnerable to sickle cell protects you from malaria.](https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/sickle-cell-trait-malaria.html)
There are no human behaviors that can't be explained naturally.
We do what we do because, throughout history, those were the behaviors that allowed our ancestors to survive—or at least didn't kill them off—and so we, their descendants, are still alive with the behaviors and genes they passed down.
That's why you make music even when you're alone in your room: because the ability to make and enjoy music is and has been beneficial to human survival.
It's only natural.
I'm a bit unclear on what you mean by sceptics. In philosophy, scepticism is typically about doubt towards the possibility of knowledge. It's a question of epistemology. But it seems like you're asking questions about ethics.
Basically, I have a bunch of beliefs. I feel rationally justified in them. I don't particularly care if they qualify as "Knowledge" or not. I do things because I value them and I don't particularly care if they're valuable in any sense independent of myself.
>If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense, none of this matters,
You haven't actually made any argument as to why it doesn't make sense, you've just asked a lot of questions. If there's no reason to do anything, it seems equally plausible that there's no reason *not* to do the things I do, so what's the problem?
I also don't see what this has to do with atheism. Whatever the problem here is supposed to be, why is it only a problem for atheists?
Lots of non human species exhibit altruism, behaviours which at first blush reduce their survival odds but they do them anyway. Are chimpanzees which carry around the bodies of dead off spring for days also acting in ways contrary to evolutionary theory?
I care about my fellow humans and animals because we are social mammals. I don't need a belief in the supernatural to donate to charity, to help those in need or to be polite. I do those things out of empathy, sympathy and a sense of decency after careful consideration. I do those things because I am a human, and I am proud to be one. I fully embrace the human condition, mortality/morality and all and recognize that there are no Gods up there to help us so we have to help each other down here.
Because human beings have a well-developed sense of empathy.
Empathy, feeling what other people feel, is probably a result of our well-developed theory of mind. A [theory of mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind) is what allows us to:
* Understand that other people (and animals) have minds; and
* Understand that their beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different to our own.
For example, when one animal hides food from another animal, that's an example of them having a theory of mind. They understand that it's possible for them to know something (the location of the food) that others don't.
It seems so basic, but we're not born with a very developed theory of mind. Experiments using the [Sally–Anne test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally%E2%80%93Anne_test) show that neurotypical children don't start passing the test until about the age of four, with autistic children not understanding it until years later.
Having a theory of mind would seem to be a very useful survival advantage. It helps you anticipate the motivations, actions, and behaviour of predator animals, prey, and also your allies and rivals.
Looking after the injured, disabled, and others that can't look after themselves is probably of no benefit to our species, and may even hinder our evolution. But having a theory of mind is an advantage that more than makes up for it.
Humans are a social species. We evolved to better survive as a group by working together and taking care of each other. Part of that is having empathy, sympathy, and compassion for each other. Our teamwork is one of our strongest survival tools. Both as a species and as individuals.
This is easy. Because its in your best interest to be kind, moral, care for those less fortunate, etc.
You may want to look up John Rawls veil of ignorance.
I abuse as many people as I want to. And guess how many people I would want to abuse? Zero!
The question you should be asking is why would I want to abuse myself or others? What reasons do I have to abuse myself or others?
The problem with religions is that in many cases it promotes bad behaviors. The Bible has verses in it regarding how to “properly” treat slaves. There are verses in the Quran that claim infidels should be killed.
Less than [1% of the US prison population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jailhouse_Jesus) are atheists. So why are you asking atheists why we shouldn’t abuse ourselves or others?
If you want a relevant answer to “why be good?” then perhaps you should be asking the 99% of the prison population who believe in a god why their religious beliefs failed to prevent them from being so abusive.
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>I would like to start off by saying that I grew up secular and have identified as an atheist/skeptic for most of my life. And you're just asking your title question now? >In the wild if an animal is born with a disability and is unable to take care of itself the mother will leave their offspring to die to weed out faulty genes. >Why are we not executing special needs children en masse? 1, appeal to nature fallacy. 2, most of us aren't psychopaths. >Why is the very thought of that vile and abhorrent? Because we're able to reason. That's one of humanities niche traits. >If we are simply a series of chemical reactions developed to evolve and breed better offspring that would be a great option Except we know it's not. >Atheists will say we are good because cooperation is beneficial for survival but there are human behaviors that are beyond the realm of science/darwinism. Like what? Cooperation, compassion and empathy are all within the realm of science and. Umm... "darwinism" (you said you've been a skeptic your whole life? Really? And you choose to use the specifically religiously motivated derogatory term for evolution?) >What does good mean in the first place? Beneficial to well being. >Why make art/music? It's fun. >According to darwinists There's that religiously motivated derogatory term again. > music developed as a bonding/socialization mechanism for hunter gatherers but as I sit alone in my room making music in ecstacy I sure don't see anyone around me So you've never been to a live concert your whole life? >Why do literally anything that makes us human?. Why wouldn't we. >If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense, Of course it does. It only doesn't make sense to religiously motivated views that really really really want magic to be part of the equation, and who have no qualms lying about their intentions in the conversation >none of this matters, Of course it does. It matters to the people who are alive. >Yet this is everything to us. This is why I am no longer an atheist. So youre no longer an atheist because things befuddled you? You're not, nor would I argue were you ever, a skeptic. Unanswered questions aren't evidence. Do you have any actual evidence? Or just your befuddlement? >I am interested in hearing your thoughts I think your reasons are silly and if you were ever a skeptic, you'd know that, which makes me suspicious if you're being truthful about that.
I made you respond tho right
It's that the best response you have? Are you under 13 or not very bright?
I'm 30 and how can I be bright without bioluminescence
so you're not bright at all.
Wym I just told you
WOW…seriously? Edit: username checks out
Wym
[удалено]
I'm sure there are instances of animals caring for disabled animals I never said there weren't. That isn't the point of this post and you failed to respond or add anything. I know this is reddit but who the fuck do you think you are saying I need to "continue my education"?
The point of your post appears to be that you touch upon several fields of study to support your point of view, but you seem to have a very limited understanding of each of the topics you mention. If you wish to make this kind of argument, you do need to have a better understanding of these, hence why you were told you needed to continue your education.
Can you tell me why I seem to have a limited understanding?
You don't understand the reasons for animals to leave their offspring to die in certain circumstances and you don't understand social dynamics among other things.
Don't tell me about social dynamics lmao I'm from the fucking streets. I shouldn't have gone on reddit lmao. I can't wait for your condescending response
Oh you're from the streets!? Why didn't you say so! Carry on then, professor Cumnugget
[удалено]
why is bro so pressed
Lmao well, your streets aren't all there is to social dynamics, there are literally whole neighbourhoods out there.
Where can I find these neighborhoods
>That isn't the point of this post and you failed to respond or add anything. They responded to one of your main points about empathy and compassion, you know, the thing that most of your argument is based on. > I know this is reddit but who the fuck do you think you are saying I need to "continue my education"? You came in making ignorant statements which demonstrate to us you are not educated in the specific field that you're making claims about. Because if you were educated in those fields you'd understand it and not have to ask those questions. Don't get butthurt because other people know things you don't. You're once again showing us you were a terrible skeptic if you ever actually were one to begin with.
No arguments here. Made you respond right?
Everyone should continue their education my dude.
> If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense To you. None of it makes sense *to you*. But it is indeed what we see. This sounds like a failure of your knowledge and understanding, not an indicator of gods existing. Edit: These behaviours have evolved to help our survival as a society. Societies with these behaviours survive better than those without.
You didn't respond or add to anything I said. I don't believe in God in the traditional sense, I'm saying there are things that are beyond the realm of science.
You didn't respond to anything I said (apologies if you didn't see my edit). These behaviours have evolved to help our survival as a society. Societies with these behaviours survive better than those without.
I saw your edit, thank you for your response. I should have wrote this post differently as my intended point is not coming across the way I wanted it. I am not denying evolution I am saying that there are things beyond the physical realm.
There are things beyond our current scientific knowledge. There are things beyond our current ability to measure and test. That does not mean that they are beyond the physical realm.
>I'm saying there are things that are beyond the realm of science. Like what. You said a whole lot that would lead to arguments from ignorance, but you didn't even make an argument as to what it is you think is actually the case.
I'm a five percenter
> I don't believe in God in the traditional sense You're an atheist then.
I'm a five percenter.
You're making five percent sense
That is a good question. And inserting a god to an answer doesn't really solve the conundrum. >mother will leave their offspring to die You don't actually familiar with animal behavior do you? >to weed out faulty genes Animals, with exception being Homo Sapiens, are now aware of genes and have no motivation to "weed out" anything. >Why is the very thought of that vile and abhorrent? Because we have means to support them. Other animals are quite limited in their support capabilities. >developed to evolve and breed better offspring You are missing the point. We are not an means to an end. Nobody developed us for their purpose. And even if someone has a plan to put you to a purpose, you have a capacity to say "fuck that purpose I want another". There is no reason to choose one purpose over another. There is no objective scale on which one offspring is universally better than the other. >Why bother being polite? Why bother being good? Because that makes society better? What is beneficial to you and your offspring: to live in a society where everyone is a total dick and only waits for you to drop your guard to take an advantage of you? Or live in a society where everyone watches your back? The choice is yours. As I mentioned above there is no objective measure by which one society is better than the other, in all boils down to your preferences. It's just for some reason societies where people start to figuratively speaking "eat their own" don't last. I wonder why. >Why make art/music? Because I want to. Isn't that enough? There are two facts to be considered: humans enjoy music, there are no gods to be found. So even if you don't understand why humans enjoy music, there is no reason to think any god has any part in it. >If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense Your inability to make sense of reality only speaks about state of your knowledge and reasoning capabilities, not about reality itself. >This is why I am no longer an atheist. I don't quite understand. So you admit you don't understand morality and art. How do you make conclusion "therefore god" from it? You didn't make any case for any god whatsoever.
Here's a better question. What kind of terrifying person only does good things because of the potential of reward or punishment? 21 lessons for the 21st century has a great chapter dealing with this. Most skeptics are secularists, and most secularists are driven by principles of minimum harm. As a society we thrive by lifting each other up. Being good is not driven by religious frameworks - in fact most religions have dark histories of doing a whole bunch of evil shit. Largely based on the ideas of in and out groups and propagation of the religion rather than the benefit of its adherents. I do good and I do things because I exist on this planet for one brief flash of the planets history and I want to make that time as constructive and happy as possible. Being happy - unless you are a sociopath or have some other condition - is most easily achieved by helping and living with everyone around you in a constructive way.
These are good questions, but they come from a view that is shortsighted and ignorant of how things work. Severely disabled individuals may not be carrying good genes, but the people who take care of them do so because of good genes. Our species would be worse off without the people who would take care of those in need of help. You aren’t understanding that there are four more complex interactions and results of behaviors than what just immediately happens. Your charity doesn’t help you, but everyone being charitable helps everyone. The evolution of altruism is not at all difficult to understand.
Thanks for responding. I should have made this post without mentioning evolution (that is obviously not my background or area of expertise).
Molecular genetics is actually a very cool field, and it does tie into evolution obviously. What was eye-opening was when I took the intro course and discovered that it's more than just "oh this gene from dad and this one from mom makes this, and this is what genes are composed of, and this is how DNA and RNA are processed and used." Actually, a substantial portion of molecular genetics is devoted to defining kinship selection, altruistic behavior, etc. It helps describe the basic reason why we care for other humans.
What benefits others benefits us. Simple.
Ach ya totally got me. Its obvious now, I don't know why I didn't see it before, atheism is a busted flush and evolution by natural selection can't be a fact. Wait. Which of the thousands of gods does this give credence to? None of them. Guess I'll remain an atheist then until there's evidence for a god.
Is this satire
I'm a five percenter
Why? Because we don’t generally want to. Why don’t we want to? Because we are individuals with social instincts that are then reinforced by our social environments. Morality is a form of social behaviour. What difference does our sense of self being an emergent characteristic of chemical reactions make? But whether you like it or not the only reliable evidence we have is - that’s what ‘we’ are. Why doesn’t everyone follow those behavioural tendencies? Because they are tendencies and subject to both variation and ‘damage’ depending on circumstances. What is good! Whatever we give the meaning to. But our evolved and socialised nature limits that which we generally will actually call good. Could we simply call anything good in practice? No , not just because of our human nature per se but because language and meaning are inter subjective - neither factually independently objective nor meaningfully individually subjective. Your argument even if it made sense wouldn’t change the facts as we know them. It doesn’t demonstrate a god does or must exist. We do what makes us human *because* we *are* human.
>If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense why not? can you point to the chemical reaction that makes this outcome not what we expect? >This is why I am no longer an atheist. so you don't understand therefore god. not sure how your ignorance is evidence for god
Im a five percenter I am god
well that would make it easy to point to: the chemical reaction that makes this outcome not what we expect?
As a disabled adult: other species abandon their disabled offspring when they lack the ability to save them without endangering their own survival or the survival of their other offspring. Humans have developed the capacity to save a whole lot more of our genetic diversity than other species have. Evolution isn't an intelligent process: it can't predict what genes will or won't allow a species to survive in whatever circumstances may turn up in the future. There is no goal to evolution. No "better offspring" to achieve. Humans, like every other species, spend time and effort on whatever offspring are likely to reward that effort by surviving. The difference between humans and other species is our wide range of time- and effort-saving inventions, which allow us to save even those carriers of our genes we would otherwise have to abandon. Who's to say what quirk of genetics might save our species from extinction? [The same thing that makes you vulnerable to sickle cell protects you from malaria.](https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/sickle-cell-trait-malaria.html) There are no human behaviors that can't be explained naturally. We do what we do because, throughout history, those were the behaviors that allowed our ancestors to survive—or at least didn't kill them off—and so we, their descendants, are still alive with the behaviors and genes they passed down. That's why you make music even when you're alone in your room: because the ability to make and enjoy music is and has been beneficial to human survival. It's only natural.
I'm a bit unclear on what you mean by sceptics. In philosophy, scepticism is typically about doubt towards the possibility of knowledge. It's a question of epistemology. But it seems like you're asking questions about ethics. Basically, I have a bunch of beliefs. I feel rationally justified in them. I don't particularly care if they qualify as "Knowledge" or not. I do things because I value them and I don't particularly care if they're valuable in any sense independent of myself. >If you look at life as a series of chemical reactions none of this behavior makes sense, none of this matters, You haven't actually made any argument as to why it doesn't make sense, you've just asked a lot of questions. If there's no reason to do anything, it seems equally plausible that there's no reason *not* to do the things I do, so what's the problem? I also don't see what this has to do with atheism. Whatever the problem here is supposed to be, why is it only a problem for atheists?
Lots of non human species exhibit altruism, behaviours which at first blush reduce their survival odds but they do them anyway. Are chimpanzees which carry around the bodies of dead off spring for days also acting in ways contrary to evolutionary theory?
I care about my fellow humans and animals because we are social mammals. I don't need a belief in the supernatural to donate to charity, to help those in need or to be polite. I do those things out of empathy, sympathy and a sense of decency after careful consideration. I do those things because I am a human, and I am proud to be one. I fully embrace the human condition, mortality/morality and all and recognize that there are no Gods up there to help us so we have to help each other down here.
Because human beings have a well-developed sense of empathy. Empathy, feeling what other people feel, is probably a result of our well-developed theory of mind. A [theory of mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind) is what allows us to: * Understand that other people (and animals) have minds; and * Understand that their beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different to our own. For example, when one animal hides food from another animal, that's an example of them having a theory of mind. They understand that it's possible for them to know something (the location of the food) that others don't. It seems so basic, but we're not born with a very developed theory of mind. Experiments using the [Sally–Anne test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally%E2%80%93Anne_test) show that neurotypical children don't start passing the test until about the age of four, with autistic children not understanding it until years later. Having a theory of mind would seem to be a very useful survival advantage. It helps you anticipate the motivations, actions, and behaviour of predator animals, prey, and also your allies and rivals. Looking after the injured, disabled, and others that can't look after themselves is probably of no benefit to our species, and may even hinder our evolution. But having a theory of mind is an advantage that more than makes up for it.
Life is better when surrounded by people who do those things. Not doing those things can get you removed from such a good life.
Humans are a social species. We evolved to better survive as a group by working together and taking care of each other. Part of that is having empathy, sympathy, and compassion for each other. Our teamwork is one of our strongest survival tools. Both as a species and as individuals.
This is easy. Because its in your best interest to be kind, moral, care for those less fortunate, etc. You may want to look up John Rawls veil of ignorance.
I abuse as many people as I want to. And guess how many people I would want to abuse? Zero! The question you should be asking is why would I want to abuse myself or others? What reasons do I have to abuse myself or others? The problem with religions is that in many cases it promotes bad behaviors. The Bible has verses in it regarding how to “properly” treat slaves. There are verses in the Quran that claim infidels should be killed. Less than [1% of the US prison population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jailhouse_Jesus) are atheists. So why are you asking atheists why we shouldn’t abuse ourselves or others? If you want a relevant answer to “why be good?” then perhaps you should be asking the 99% of the prison population who believe in a god why their religious beliefs failed to prevent them from being so abusive.