well to be fair, a lack of evidence does not really count as something worth investigating. have you forgotten that religions require "faith"? if they didnt, they would just be called "reality". dont blame me if you hate science and evolution and sociology and prefer to say "the wizard did it". not sure how that is the most likely explanation for human behavior. when you lose the remote control do you assume a gremlin stole it? do you jussmp to themost absurd conclusion you can think of to explain things you dont exactly understand? of course. peer into their crystal ball to make sure the future isnt there. then help a brother out and correct me. althoug i would point out that i virtually never make an error that isnt clearly a typo. you should be happy i taught you how to spell tenet, not snarky. the major religions clearly advocate stoning folks, murdering indfidels, that kinda thing. god himself flooded the whole world and ravaged cities and brought crushin plagues to folks.
the book of morals, being based on reason, is non-denominational and universal. the rules that make society work best are called morals. you can call them utilitarianism if you want. they didnt come from magic. again, morals are based on reason. saying i have weird morals is like saying i have weird math. i know not to be a bad person because i want to be treated well. you might have some extra moral rules that i think are stupid, like you might not like gambling or prostitution or something. but for the most part we are using the same rules. they didnt come from a sorcerer. they came from reason. again, from my perspective, your god is basically santa claus. santa claus didnt invent morals. but kids do act right because they want santa to reward them. that doesnt make santa the source of morals.
Morality is the distinction between right and wrong. Since there is no universal agreement where to draw this line, morality is relative. The morality of Germans in the early 1940's certainly did not make society work best. They simply redefined good and evil.
sure, i buy that to an extent, but only about obviouly grey areas like abortion. for the most part, morals are based on reason, which is constant. it is always bad to needlessly murder the innocent. that isnt subjective. some of the rest we can find arguments about and struggle with. but for the most part it is simple and constant. from the perspective of a rational human, the nazis are immoral. i know they say they are moral, and they have their own definitions, but they are simply wrong. we are kinda playing word games here. morals are universal and obvious, most of the time.
Do you not think your "reason" was influenced by the culture you were brought up in? Whether you choose to believe that this country was founded on Christian values or not, you can't deny that it is at least heavily influenced by them. In my opinion, ultimately what the "free thinking" masses adopt as their standard of what is right is largely a product of society (not so free after all). In your example of Santa Claus, it wouldn't be Santa inventing morals in the first place. Kids do what their parents tell them to because they think their parents know what is "right" by Santa. By the way, honoring your parents is one of the commandments. Santa is clearly nothing but religious propaganda. Speaking of Santa, do you celebrate or even participate in Christmas? Easter? Thanksgiving?
nope. i dont agree with any of the silly sins that are related to religion. i believe in the rational version of morals. i am in favor of things like prostitution and other things that religious folks hate. incidentally, the founding fathers were far more secular than modern politicians. many of them would be laughed out of modern politics, never elected, called infidels. if people are eating a christmas pie i will eat it. i dont do anything special. my favorite holiday is cinco de mayo. and halloween is good because girls dress slutty. last year i came very close to not noticin it was easter. i only know because they have decorations in stores. those holidays matter to me the way ramadan and yom kippur matter to you.
thats actually almost true. a good friend of mine is a food engineer for cadbury and he always has tons of those eggs. they are ok. praise jesus.
