Quote:
Originally Posted by crukster
Thou shalt not Kill, is that wrong?
Thou shalt not steal, is that wrong?
Honour thy Mother and thy Father, is that wrong?
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It depends on
why you do that. I think there are three possible causes:
- Bucause you honestly think it's the right thing. That is, due to a sincere own moral conviction.
- Just because it's an order. A supposed order dictated by a supposed god through a supposed prophet (a goathers-village's local boss, a carpenter's hippie son in the Middle-East, an Arab syphilitic cameller, etc...) in a supposed certain way.
- A kind of "intermediate way": the neurotic (or hypocrite) way. You actually behave as you want, but using a self-deception as an alibi. That is, you like to think you do things because you follow religious commandments, although deep in your mind you know that's not true. Catholic priests call this way scholastic, but it's actually the same thing with a politically-correct name.
I support the principles of Liberal Democracy (those from Enlightment to the present). Therefore, I defend freedom of cult and freedom of expression. However, if someone ask me what is more desirable or preferable to me, my opinion is: I wouldn't like to live in a society where people just
obey orders, as if they were robots, or expected an afterlife reward. Because as Goya said (and painted):
The sleep of reason produces monsters. And neither I like hypocrisy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schranz bass
How can people be defined by what they are not?
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A priori you're right. But bear in mind that the term
atheist is mainly used in cultural contexts where monotheistic religions are predominant and they've been the main source for moral rules for the past 17 centuries.
A backward movement, because Ancient Greeks already said that human moral principles can be established through a rational process. And towards year 60 Seneca enunciated the main guideline of that what we nowadays call
secular humanism:
"Man should be sacred to the man"
And, by the way, perhaps afterwards he drank a good glass of wine. After all, it was Seneca who wrote:
"Wine is a perfect cure for heaviness and sorrow" (
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium)
Sadly, this
moral philosophy was replaced, three centuries later, by
dogmas from Abrahamic religions. As a result, many people do (or don't do) things just because they think they are fulfilling "divine orders" from a supposed god. And by the way, some say God don't want us to drink alcohol. Well, that's their loss.
