Printable View
dude, since when has religion EVER made sense? why bother trying to make sense of it now? i mean you of all people should know of the countless hypocritical statments in the bible, the double standarding, and everything else... just don't even bother trying to make sense of it all, you'll end up giving yourself an anuyerism.
You'd figure that don't murder and don't steal would be common sense things too, but they've got commandments for those :pQuote:
Originally Posted by rebgirl420
It's the result of sexual dimorphism mixed with the homo sapien notion of culture. Over time men were able to create religious notions to affirm their gender bias, and these notions permeated popular culture via organized religion.
A curious, albeit depressing, factoid: Italy didn't have an anti-rape law until 1984. Remember that next time someone starts ranting about how Western civilization is superior to all others not based around the Judeo-Christian ethos.
i just realized something, the satanic bible (LaVey) does say it is wrong to rape.. but the christian bible doesn't? hmm.... intresting indeed... :p
you said " dude, since when has religion ever made sense? whyQuote:
Originally Posted by slipknotpsycho
bother trying to make sense of it now? if you dont belive in the bible why waist your time even talking about? if you saw dog crap
on the side walk, whould you go home and then get on your computar and waist your time talking about dog crap? that no one
cares anthing about? its the same old story, lets talk about God
and the bible and put all the cristian down, just to make are selfs
seem so SMART and well read. you seem to be very intelligent, did
you get your Phd from Harverd, and what year was it that you went around the world, debating all the great minds, and Iam sorry
that I missed you on Dr phil when you came out with the great evidence on how God can not excist in three words are less.
sir you trully have a great mind iam so glad that we have people like you around to tell the rest of us the truth. wow what a load off, now I dont have to do to church anymore, because what I really want to do on sundays is watch nascar. Thank you Ive been waiting all my life for some one like you to come and set me straight.thank you thank you so much.
no problem, happy to help any time.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdmarcus59
That analogy is a bunch of dog crap. Who are you to tell us non-believers that we shouldn't voice our opinions on the content of the Bible? I live in a country where the Bible's most fervent supporters are saying it is the foundation of our society and ought to be the foundation of our legal system, and yet they say we who do not believe in the Bible should just shut our mouths. Well, fuck you if you hold that opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdmarcus59
The Bible does indeed have a huge impact on our culture. There's no denying that. Why bother discussing it? Why bother discussing other literature that has cultural influences? Why bother discussing any religious text that you don't believe in? Well, why the fuck not? These documents are important, and their contents have serious consequences for how their followers will act in our society. I can talk about the Bible, I can talk about the Qur'an, I can talk about the Buddhist scriptures all I want, because these things genuinely interest me. Not only do the mythologies themselves interest me, but also the psychological phenomenon of people actually believing the mythologies in the absence of evidence and even in the face of contrary evidence.
It's really fascinating the mental gymnastics you theists use to justify these ancient scriptures and their ancient moralities in the presence of a society which has progressed morally far beyond these scriptures. Really, it is. You can learn a lot by studying the religious mind, or the mind of someone engrossed in a conspiracy theory, or the mind of someone who genuinely believes they have psychic powers, and how they deal with the criticism of their claims. This is one criticism I have never seen reasonably answered by someone who believes that God had something to do with the laws laid down in the Old Testament: why are rape and slavery explicitly approved of by this so-called "highest moral authority"? It just doesn't make sense. If you believe in objective morality, that morality cannot change. If rape and slavery are evil now, they were evil when God was endorsing them in Deuteronomy and Exodus.
Aren't stealing and killing also common sense things? I mean, there isn't a culture on the planet where it would be okay to kill your neighbor and steal all his stuff. Everybody knows killing and stealing are wrong, and yet God doesn't hesitate to mention them in the Ten Commandments. So why isn't a prohibition on rape anywhere in the Bible? Why do I actually find verses where God says it is okay to rape women from captured towns during battle? That just doesn't make any sense to me. And yet, it seems perfectly reasonable that the Israelites simply took their already existing laws and cultural traditions and said that God ordered them to have those laws and traditions. All other religions do the same thing, don't they? They take moral ideas that humans invented and put them into the mouths of their gods.Quote:
Originally Posted by rebgirl420
I am firmly against the death penalty, and I think in that respect I am more moral than the God of the Old Testament, who teaches not mercy and forgiveness but mercilessness and revenge. Any sophisticated moral system starts out with trying to understand why people do the things they do and trying to empathize with them; not brandishing people as inherently evil and not worthy of life.Quote:
BUT I think that if someone does indeed rape or molest anyone that they should be killed in a horrible, atrocious way. Slowly too. But thats just my 2 cents
Love. Don't hate. Even people who have done evil things still have some good in them. There is no such thing as a completely evil person. It is possible to change people with forgiveness and love, and to rehabilitate them into people who do not do evil things. I find it surprising how often Christians tout themselves as the sole guardians of that message, and how few actually practice it. If your Jesus-inspired moral system is all it's cracked up to be, an atheist shouldn't have to be telling you that mercy and forgiveness, not murderous revenge, is the way to confront evil in our society.
umbrella commandment:
thou shalt not interfer with the free will of another being.
try it on, think of any "sin" and see if it holds up.
even theft.
you cannot rape the willing...
nor can you steal from the giving.
i like to steal free samples. it makes me feel gangsta.
Yes, ultimately the only moral principle is to maximize the happiness and minimize the suffering in the world. Something the Bible doesn't talk about at all. According to biblical morality, the reason you should do good deeds is not because it will increase happiness or decrease suffering, but because it will get you brownie points with God and keep him from making your afterlife unpleasant. Ironically, the Christian religion has turned morality into a completely self-centered thing for a lot of people. They act morally not for the sake of doing the right thing, but because they think they are being threatened by the most powerful being in the universe with the most horrible punishment in the universe.
If a Christian thinks that's what it takes to make them act ethically to others, then that says a lot about how much they really esteem their fellow humans. I have a lot more respect for someone who does the right thing because it's the right thing to do, than someone who does the right thing just to avoid a horrible punishment like Hell or prison. Someone who doesn't murder only because a law prohibits them from murdering is not an ethical person.