Of course all are welcome – but I read something the other day that made me think (may even have been here on KMC).
Some religious person claimed that religion gives us MORALS. Now, I’m yet to see any proof of any divinity of any kind – yet I’m a fairly moral person myself.
And I’m interested in hearing other atheists' views on the subject of morals and ethics. What makes YOU a moral person, when you don’t have some book preaching you’ll burn or be reborn as an insect if you don’t behave?
Personally I think the saying “Do to others as you wish others should do to you” fits me perfectly. I’m not better nor worse than the next specimen of homo sapiens. Therefore I do not have the right to force my views and opinions on others, nor force them to do things they do not want.
__________________ "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
-Voltaire
"That includes ruining Halloween because someone swallowed a Bible."
"I just thought you were a guy."
"... Most guys do."
I agree entirely. The idea that morality came from religion is an incredibly stupid one. In fact, none of my friends are religious, and all of them are much nicer people than a lot of Christian kids I know. Everybody has an inborn sense of morality, it's just that some people are conscious of it, others are not, and still others have learned to ignore it entirely. Part of the reason the Christians I know are such as$wipes is because they'd like to think they're better people than everybody else.
There is some wisdom in the Bible, people just take it way too literally. The Golden Rule, and at least a portion of the Ten Commandments are a perfect example. The problem is that people get the idea that the guys who wrote the Bible were the first ones to come up with all that, which is totally untrue.
for an odd number of years before the written bible existed...the stories were handed down orally from one generation to the next...over time, eventually stories can change by one point of a degree to either the right of left and the whole original story is no longer the same afterwards...now multiply that to our present time...but then, that is my opinion...
but let's not forget when you translate hebrew to greek to latin to english...so much of it can be lost in translation...especially the creation story
7 days...really!!!
oh, btw...i'm not an atheist
so apologies are offered...
but lets not forget the other religions out there...i remember on the Russian channel, someone was making rude comments about the Bhagata-Gita (Hindusism)...i have only read part of the Bhagata Gita but he was saying that its not right that Krisna has said that we die and ressurect as another animal (or human)...and he said other things that since Krishna had 108 wives that is morally wrong...
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Life is short and the art long, the occasion instant, experiment perilous, decision difficult.
Having multiple wives isn't morally wrong the way a lot of other things are... Hinduism is overall a pretty good religion, no reason to break a leg over polygamy
i for one would not hazard a guess as to who decides...
having that many wives and children seem more like an economic burden in our present time...but in days of old it may have seemed the right thing to those that practiced it...
more wives guarantee more children: sons to plow the fields, daughters for the dowry...and who can argue the benefits for the husband in the bedroom....
its the nature of the males among the species on this planet, well at least the majority of the species, to multiply to secure the ("bloodline") to make sure its genes live on. The more female companions the bigger the chance that it is your bloodline that rules the plain
and no matter our status as a specie and the limits of our human imagination we are still in essence animals: like the male lion in the wild...to propogate our specie
May I ask the hardcore atheists- to your mind, what is the benefit, or maybe the point, of acting in a moral way if you are capable of getting much more for yourself by acting in an immoral way? And if you rate guilt is a reason, I'd probably repeat the question and ask what the point of guilt was.
(that is talking of a specific theoretical situation, not commenting upon life in general).
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Err, well, possibly, though they would probably answer along the lines of ultimate justice re: Heaven/Hell, or Karma, or whatever their belief system implies. The question takes on a different tint when asked to an Atheist. Omega wants to explore atheistic morals; I thought this was a good way fo going about that!
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
KMC Community Forums
Aug 13th, 2004 04:39 PM
i agree.
