If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything. You'd just ask for forgiveness and then you'd be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It's a little easier if you've got a god to forgive you.
I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.
Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
I am not a religious person, but I am spiritual. But I don't believe in things like guilt.
Guilt: punishing yourself before God doesn't.
Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right.
Knowing that you are completely forgiven destroys the power of sin in your life.
I believe forgiveness is possible for everybody, for everything, but I'm a Buddhist.
You've got to be willing to forgive and say, 'God, get something good out of something bad.' And if you'll make that choice... God will do it.
I'm not an atheist, but I'm not a Christian, either.