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Ah, and pro war. Once I made this connection consciously, I stopped calling them "pro life". You can't be both.
So true! My old college roommate was in the military and a "militant" christian too. He even took me to his church one day because I couldn't figure out why he was so religious. One day he was reading one of his war-mongering magazines that showcases the latest missiles and fighter jets and telling me how much "kill power" each one had. He literally had a smile on his face... beaming with national pride.
I asked him how he can be relishing in the killing capacity of those weapons when his beloved bible tells him "thou shall not kill"... especially since none of them were being used for self-defense. His eyes glazed over and he looked at me like a deer in the headlights... completely speechless. I hope he really learned something that day. Bible thumpers always try to justify that quote by referring to OTHER parts of the bible like "eye for an eye."
Um, no.
It's "Thou shall not kill." Period. There are no exceptions to the 10 Commandments. They don't come with an asterisk. That's why they are commandments.
The greatest tragedy is that the religious figureheads have managed to confuse billions that morality comes from religion.
I appreciate the image linked in the OP because it's undoubtedly true. If you're telling me that you're more moral because of your faint belief in the supernatural, and that is what is stopping you from raping children, you're an awful human being.
If you're telling me that you're more moral because of your faint belief in the supernatural, and that is what is stopping you from raping children, you're an awful human being.
That is a very good point. I have lived a good and moral life for 67 years without any religious beliefs.
However, there are some awful human beings who have desires to harm others or harm themselves with alcohol or drugs. I have relatives like that. In some cases, religion seems to help these people to lead better lives, and I think that is good.
In this very inspirational evangelical song, it stresses that "no man does it all by himself":
Religion is NOT the highroad to morality. I can't deny that a lot of churches try to teach some kind of constructive morals. But a lot of the time I think that people are drawn to religion because they like the authoritarianism of it. Really, if you want to be on a power trip nothing is a better platform than the Old Testament. I think that a lot of people who are into being a control freak, a power-tripper or just into good old fashioned right-wing authoritarianism (not a reference to political parties) go to the bible because it's full of that kind of thing and fully justified with the flip of a few pages.
But a lot of the time I think that people are drawn to religion because they like the authoritarianism of it.
Cleatis, I think you are EXACTLY RIGHT.
A lot of people feel better living in an authoritarian culture, like "The bible says it, I believe it, and that ends it."
For these people, religion can be a good thing as long as it encourages behavior we all find socially beneficial. If they would feel lost without authoritarian guidance, let them have their religion.
When I was a kid growing up in the Badtist curch, we were ralely allowed to go see moview BUT We could see anything with violence, anything with bad language and it did not matter waht the body count was....BUT if it had nudity...a glimpse of a bare breast or bumm, then it was Forbidden!!!!
Not to hijack the thread but I always found it amusing in those days that Bible Thumpers never felt like shootings in movies influenced kids to commit violence however sex in movies influenced them to have sex.
Interestingly after Reagan and Jim Brady got shot and all this gun control controversy started, the Bible Thumpers have changed their tune. They now will say that violence in movies influences kid's to violence yet the gun is still incidental.
So they have morphed from indicating that violence in movies and guns had no bearing on behavior to where they now say that the movies, video games etc. DO violent behavior but if a kid didn't have a gun he would stab somebody, or hit them with a baseball bat or bean them with a rock or something.
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