u/CustardNo6023

Just kinda curious to hear how you all think about it

If you don’t believe in karma or any kind of cosmic reward/punishment system, how do you personally justify doing moral things in life?

For example, imagine this:

You find a wallet with a significant amount of cash in it. There’s an id inside, but no one saw you pick it up. You could easily keep the money and face zero consequences.

Or like you’re in a position to help someone, but it costs you time, money, or opportunity and again, no one would judge you if you didn’t.

In moments like these, what actually drives your decision?

For religious people , they are encouraged to do good with the expectation of some form of return (karma, heaven, etc.). Without that framework, what anchors your sense of right and wrong in situations like this?

I’ve tried all the breads that you get in grocery stores like modern elite etc and the ingredients seems questionable and also poor quality.

One of my friend(religious) put out an argument that atheism ignores the possibility that science can’t explain everything yet. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more that criticism seems valid.

Imagine there’s a sealed box and no one knows what’s inside

One person says we don’t know yet let’s investigate

Another says it could be something beyond our understanding

A third says there is a dragon inside

The atheist type response would be I’m not saying it’s impossible but I’m not going to believe there is a dragon without evidence

Atheists often frame their position as “just waiting for evidence,” but in practice it comes off more like dismissing anything that doesn’t fit within current scientific frameworks. That is not neutral. That is drawing a line and acting like everything outside it is automatically irrational.

But here is the issue

If the thing inside the box is something that cannot be tested or measured yet, then this standard of evidence basically guarantees you will reject it by default. That is not open mindedness. That is just a built in filter against certain kinds of explanations.

At that point atheism starts to look less like careful thinking and more like a refusal to even consider possibilities that fall outside a narrow definition of knowledge

Ps: not trying to offend anyone here