That particular story is very sad, but it could have happened no matter what religion or lack thereof the adopted parents ascribed to. There are people who do bad things everywhere.

 

If there is a hell, I'll be sure to go to it so I can torment them for-fckin-ever!

 

I couldn't help but agree, not to mention that some religions promote racism, sexism, and all kinds of other good things. So for some it's not particularly bad to do these things.

 

 

On the topic of Christianity, however, I love how angry they get at us and start praying all of this perdition nonsense on us. Apparently they don't know that wrath is a sin.

The thing is, Christianity doesn't make people stupid, stupid people can somehow find logic in that nonsense. And they don't even follow it! Silly rabbit, trix are for kids. People shouldn't call themselves Muslim, Christian, atheist, white, black, male, female, gay, straight, democrat, or republican if they aren't.

 

Let's see --- Thou shalt not kill.

Exodus 12:12-13

On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Deuteronomy 20

Numbers 31:15-18

15“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. 16“They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. 17Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

 

And so on.  You can search it on line pretty easy - "kill all the men" gets you pages of quotes.  I guess it is okay if god/s/dess is a hypocrite.

 

 

Yeah, maybe funny peculiar/strange.  Which is how I thought Rob meant it.  Do you think Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker and others like them (my ex-brother-in-law fits in this crowd) are going to heaven or hell?  Have they repented enough?  Shall they repent some more?

 

Also we do not need any god to be the moral anchor (see Kantian ethics, Utilitarian ethics, Aristotelian ethics, Machiavellian ethics, and Objectivism). This was pointed out by Nietzsche when he said "God is dead" meaning that we, as human beings killed God since we no longer need him to give the basis of morality. The fact that these are based upon some aspect of the human condition is similar to the way which religion finds with the problems of humanity. For instance Kantian ethics holds that a. all rational beings ought to be treated as an end in and of themselves and a means to an end or solely as an end in and of themselves and b. that a universal maxim if it does not logically contradict itself, because of this the problem is people using others  as a means to an end. Similarly, Christianity holds that in order to be ethical one must, arbitrarily as well ascribe to the teachings of (at least) one person who (probably) lived about two thousand years ago. If God is reliant upon ethics then they are as arbitrary as philosophical ethics.

Morality IS arbitrary, and has to be, because it is a part of human evolution. If morality were fixed and stagnant and never changed women would still be property and blacks would still be slaves. I would suggest you go read your holy book without your rose colored glasses on. It says a lot about "fixed morality" and I am glad believers in civil society no longer get away with using that antiquated "fixed morality".

If you want an idea how bad it is to attribute morality to a deity, all one has to do is look to Islam in the east and their "fixed morality" they attribute to their god and what they do because they think their "morality" comes from their god.

That is unhealthy and jaded and selfish.

What a load of crap. First off your god can no more forgive than Allah or Mickey Mouse, can forgive anyone.

"Forgiveness" is a human trait, not a magical one. And all of us, every single human that lives now and has ever lived has been, at some point in their life, a hypocrite, including me. I am not perfect, but neither or you, and our labels don't give us special powers over other humans.

Humans are not monochromatic and can be and often are self contradictory because we are complex in our thoughts and actions. There is no magic to life.

There is no magic to life and no invisible super hero by any name giving us the human qualities we evolved with. All humans, regardless of label, are capable of both good and bad and the same range of human emotions.

 

 

 

Oh you mean like how it was moral and encourage by god to commit genocide in OT days:

http://irregulartimes.com/secrets1.html

So I guess you need to go out and kill all the godless as well?

 

Actually, Nietzche agreed that we do need God as a basis for morality.  He simply rejected morality altogether.  Here is a quote from A History of Western Thought by Gunnar Skirbekk and Nils Gilje (p. 356):

"By referring to God, Nietzche was not thinking primarily of a religious power, but of the objectivity of values, independent of man:  all values and moral criteria are given by God.  Morality thus has a religious foundation.  For Nietzche, 'God's death' means an abolition of all forms of value transcendence and a rediscovery of values as human creations.  Religion, morality, and philosophy are symptoms of human alienation."

In the Routledge philosophy guidebook to Nietzche on morality by Brian Leiter, it says the following on p. 26:

"Nietzsche attacks morality, most simply, because he believes its unchallenged cultural dominance is a threat to human excellence and human greatness."

 

Appeal to authority. It surely goes without saying that all claimed gods are given meaning by humans and these humans plug their cultural standards of social exellence into their gods just as you would expect them to do.

 

 

 

 

Are you joking with your response?

Abstinence - Overpopulation is detrimental as food shortage can lead to chaos.  Of course contraception is a solution to this issue as well.

Charity - Helping other members of the group is part of keeping social cohesion.  Those  you help would be less likely to attack you knowing that you would provide for them.

Love - I don't see how this is a moral thing. Are you saying it is immoral not to love?

Fasting - What is moral about this?  Do you need to lose weight?  When there is not enough food to go around willingness to give up your portions would help the group.

Protecting those who don't deserve it - Part of social stability.  If people feel safe they are more likely to stay with the group increasing the groups numbers.

 

If you are joking then, I might see that you are suggesting that the theist has these things in which why consider moral and you consider to have no use.

I wasn't joking, but then, that sentence still holds true of me.And I don't give to people on the basis that they won't attack me. I am, however, more inclined to treat them as virulent household vermin, which must be exterminated. Come to think of it, I see most of the human-animal species as 'household vermin', anyways. Please."Not quite ripe yet" (points to Magus's head)Celibacy/Abstenance != contraception Food shortage is a means of exterminating 'household vermin'. "Lifeboat Ethics" 101, that is.

 

I think you sell yourself short.  Or maybe you just don't have any culture

Botulin darts. 300~ grams worth of botulin should go a hell of a long ways towards towards turning most metropoli into "ghost towns". The US government did, in fact, try to weaponize this stuff for a reason. To their dismay, they found that botulin oxidizes too readily to be much of an effective weapon.

The same goes for Ricin, although a shitload more of it is needed.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. (Thus spoke Zarathustra)