Yes. But only if they believe God will judge them for it, and aren't completely poop eating crazy (as in, murdering whilst cutting themselves because "pain is good" or whatever, not just a sociopath but actually mentally broken).

Christianity/Trinitarian beliefs have the whole "anti-imperialist rabbi Jesus of Nazareth was captured, tortured and killed by the Roman empire, the creators of Trinitarianism, who then established a whole manworshipping polytheistic religion around him, God (the Father/Creator Jesus refers to and prays to often) and the Holy Spirit, and if you believe in this creed your sins are absolved and you're saved regardless" so it does not work. And ofc people will find "scholars" and act stupid to allow themselves to act however they want in both Judaism (weird Talmudist/non-Mosaic beliefs, for instance) and Islam (eg Hadiths=>Qur'an confused fools), but that basis is not even there in Christianity.

Don't ever be surprised by all the misery European "men of God" have inflicted in the world countless times (from the days of Rome to the new Satan, America, which even name-drops God on their money, lol, many of those will burn), as it was a Frankenstein pseudoreligion meant to poison the well. If Christians believed like Jesus instead of in Jesus, whatever the fuck that means, everything from the Crusades to the East India Company, from America to Israel (Western settler colonies), would've never taken place since they require entire cultures to be behind them. But since they believe they'll be "saved" regardless, they can act like demons and rationalize their immorality and lack of humanity. But don't ever worry, for God will give everyone what they deserve. 😉

No, they don't need Hell. Christianity is used as justification for all sorts of nightmarish crimes against humanity; as is Islam, Judaism, et al.

Also, don't forget, the Bible/Tanakh/Koran teaches that murder is okay, as long as God tells you to do it; so when a woman drowns her children in the bathtub, she thinks it's for the best! "They won't be stuck on Earth to suffer, and will fly around Heaven with little wings".

Putting Abrahamic faiths to the side (a very common justification for terror), those without the faith do the same thing; they justify what they are doing to themselves.

Nah, sadly (?) that's not how it works. People's desires come first, and then they find a way within their belief system to justify their actions.

The people I'm hurting aren't human.

They're bad people.

They would do the same to me.

I'm only doing it because I'm a bad person.

I was hurt, so now is my chance.

That's just how the world works.

Et cetera. Sometimes if the conflict between their beliefs and their actions gets too great they change their beliefs.

But for the most part, people don't want to kill, steal, rape, etc. So they make up a reason to not do it, like "God will punish me if I do that" or "It's morally wrong" or whatever, and then they don't do it and move on with their lives.

(And those who do that stuff come from literally all belief systems; the only real differences being social environment - acceptability, expectations, protection from consequences, etc)

The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what's to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn't have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god

https://libquotes.com/penn-jillette

Back in the day, rich people would fund hospitals and schools in hopes of getting to heaven.

Actually, they did that to avoid peasant revolts. Attaching it to religion was just a convenient way to keep the church on their side so the pastors and priests would continue to preach the traditional message: "don't be violent against your oppressors, let God handle them and you'll be rewarded after you're dead."

Without that regular, Sunday propaganda, revolts would've been much more common.

"Christians" are the worst people I know, with almost no exception.

Where I don't think I see it. Is the question of does it actually stop what it says it does. Christians themselves hold the moral double standard of "but it's not about works". They tweak their interpretation of everything to make whatever they were going to do anyway acceptable. Just look at what they justify now. Supporting genocides, oppressing others.

Weird; I came pre-installed with this weird thing that tells me if what I'm doing is right or wrong, absent of cultural norms.

The joke here is that it doesn't exist in everyone, we just presume it does.

The assumption of pre-existing universal empathy turns out to be a fatal flaw for a collective, even when the absent rate of empathy is small (<3% of the population).

My grandmother, bless her soul, grew up on a farm and her solution to psychopathic tendencies in society is to "tie a bag of potatoes or stones to them and drop them in a river".

I said: "Grandma, what about rehabilitation?" She didn't exactly understand the word completely but she said: "After killing six people and two children, the river does it."

And you know what? Even then, capital punishment still feels wrong.

One area I find problematic is many I these people don't care what you do, as long as you "believe". And if you don't believe, you're gonna go to hell no matter how good you live.

That's why that argument exists, because they absolutely would be shittier than they are now if they were allowed.

When people like that talk about cheating at something, whether it's voting or relationships or investing or checkers, especially if they are accusing other people of it, it's because that's exactly what they would do.

If you believe that's true then I guess you need a state religion don'tcha

A few people are held in line only by a strong belief in a vengeful god. Most are not though, they choose to believe for other reasons.

You're talking about narcissists

If we suppose that belief in Hell does some good for some people, what about belief in the Easter Bunny for an alternative? We could train everyone to know that the Easter Bunny exists in Heaven, takes a deep personal interest in every one of our lives, is always watching, and wants us to be good? Those who displease the Bunny will have bad luck until they repent. It might just work, if we've ruled out humanistic approaches to morality for some unstated reason.

I think what is supposed to replace the belief in hell for some people to act well in modern societies is police and justice. Not always working, but maybe still an improvement.
The problem is science can't tell you what is morally good or bad. I think Human Rights is the best guide we have in terms of a fairly well accepted consensus of what is good for humans.