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No. I don't claim to be able to determine what is and is not moral. I'm not that arrogant. Have you paid attention at all to what I've said?
You are merely deluding yourself here Vizio, you'd feel bad otherwise. But you use the Bible version you choose (along with prayer and other blind guesswork) for Divination of what is moral, no?
What are you claiming here, that none of us can "truly, truly know what is true" then? How could your Yahweh (supposed Lord of Armies/Force/Jealousy Creator and Allower of Evil) ever claim to know it all, when it might not, and not know it?
I have as yet to be told by anyone how the atheist that "does it for one another" is any more moral in their worldview than the guy that rapes and pillages. What determines that judgement?
I guess that all those around you must be happy that you have your Bible. I mean if you need to be told that shoveling the snow for an elderly neighbour is good but raping a four year old girl is bad it is a good thing to have it written down for you. Most of us know that without it having to be explained to us, however you refuse to accept any explanation other than it having been written down in your special book. Apparently having to read it in the special book makes you moral, just behaving like a compassionate caring person is not moral unless one is following that special book. Now just where does 8t say that one should not own slaves? Where does it say you should allow ambulances to be able to pass you when their lights on on? I bet you would allow them to pass even if it wasn't the law because that is the moral thing to do.
Or even if his god is the correct god, if there is one.
You say your name is badlander. But some call you Robert. Or daddy. Or papa. Or uncle. Or sweetheart. Or honey bunch. Or grandfather. Or supervisor. Or boss. Or accountant. Or troublemaker. Or chairman. Or little brother. Which is the correct you? Or do you even exist at all?
You say your name is badlander. But some call you Robert. Or daddy. Or papa. Or uncle. Or sweetheart. Or honey bunch. Or grandfather. Or supervisor. Or boss. Or accountant. Or troublemaker. Or chairman. Or little brother. Which is the correct you? Or do you even exist at all?
Badlander is not my name but the handle I use here.
Are you telling me that your God, the Norse gods and goddesses, all the Hindu gods and every person are all the same character? Vizio claims that he gets his morals because they are given to him by God. Do you get your morals from Allah, Odin or the Great Creator?
It matters not to me that you might not know if I exist, I am not the one telling people they must do as I say if they wish to be moral. For others to be moral people it does not matter if I do even exist. For most people to be moral it does not matter if any of the gods to exist. That is my opinion.
I was listening to comedian Pete Holmes on NPR today. He grew up an evangelical Christian who is now practicing a more liberal form of the faith. He says that most of his friends are atheists now. Here is the link to the interview, and below that I've copied something that he learned from his atheist friends.
What do you think? Personally, I think it was beautifully stated.
Part of the process was seeing the rich and true morality of my atheist friends. ... I went from a lot of Christian friends to almost exclusively atheist friends. And I remember — this isn't that crazy of a story, but it was huge to me — I was on the road with a couple of comedians, one of them was T.J., and they were both atheists and we're in this hotel and it had one of those mini-marts ... but they're always unattended. And just said to them, "No one's here. If there's no God, why don't ... I just take these M&Ms?"
And T.J. was like, "Because we're doing it for one another. It's not to please some god somewhere else who's mad when you steal M&Ms; you're doing it so the woman who is not at the counter doesn't get fired when they count the M&Ms and count the cash."
I started to see that you didn't need a fear model to be beautifully compassionate and kind to one another.
A moral person is a person that understands that the universe does not revolve around their ego.
A civilized society is a society whose laws do not revolve around any one person or group of people.
The more a society treats everyone as equals the more civilized it is.
Are you telling me that your God, the Norse gods and goddesses, all the Hindu gods and every person are all the same character?
Why can't that be the case?
If I call out to 'John Smith' and fourteen John Smiths respond, they will most likely look different, have different voices, be capable of different things -- but they're still all 'John Smith'. After all, a name is simply a label that's applied to a being by common consent.
Likewise, 'god' is almost universally defined as a divine being that is set apart from the common mortal. Most, if not all, are capable of divine action (both rewarding and punitive), and many of them are said to reside in some kind of other-dimensional 'paradise'. Given those criteria, it logically follows that one, most or all of them could be the same god-being.
"If you can’t tell right from wrong without appealing to an authority or a sacred text, what you lack is not religion but compassion."
--Valerie Tarico
Simply put, if you need to consult a book to decide whether burning a person with cigarettes or beating a child is wrong, you are utter devoid of empathy. We hare a word for that: sociopath.
You say your name is badlander. But some call you Robert. Or daddy. Or papa. Or uncle. Or sweetheart. Or honey bunch. Or grandfather. Or supervisor. Or boss. Or accountant. Or troublemaker. Or chairman. Or little brother. Which is the correct you? Or do you even exist at all?
"A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet." ~Shakespear
Let's not dwell on existential/personality philosophy here, I already went down that road and it was disturbing (for the 5 minutes that it took me to get rid of my cognitive dissonance), then it was really liberating. Understanding one's true identity is a very beautiful thing.
The mind is inconstant/dynamic, the body is inconstant/dynamic, time itself is inconstant/dynamic... so are you your future self? Your present self? Your past self? You aren't your past self now, then how you you have been your present self then? You are not just your present self? How could that be? Like a river.
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