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No, we point to it as an example of how religious people can be evil too. Most people are good, irrelevant of belief. Some people are bad, irrelevent of belief....
I agree with you except that I don't think that is the point most atheists who cite the inquisition are trying to make.
As I see it, being "good" or "bad" is the result of the behavior choices we make as we make our way through mortality. Choices that move us closer to God and "conscience" are good, and those that move us away from that standard are evil. Religion tends to teach and encourage people to make choices towards the side of good.
You need to read up on the pathology of psychopaths.
Are you recommending a bit of light reading?
In my beliefs, as people deliberately deny the promptings of their conscience they will eventually "sear" or "quench" their conscience and lose all connection with God. God and Christ are the Light that makes possible civil circumtances. When that Light is ignored, denied, and eventually extinguished, those people become primal and self-serving with no regard for the rights of others. That would include people labeled by the social scientists "psychopaths" and "sociopaths."
I agree with you except that I don't think that is the point most atheists who cite the inquisition are trying to make.
As I see it, being "good" or "bad" is the result of the behavior choices we make as we make our way through mortality. Choices that move us closer to God and "conscience" are good, and those that move us away from that standard are evil. Religion tends to teach and encourage people to make choices towards the side of good.
Except for when it teaches bigotry, misogyny, tyranny, murder, rape, incest, genocide, humiliation, property destruction, deceit, suicide, infanticide, and probably more I can't think of right now, all of which have been justified by "believers" at some point in time or another.
The problem is that "good" really isn't objective, no matter how much believers want it to be. There are different ways to approach good. Different priorities and ethics that are all "good" may be in conflict, or may be different levels of good to different people. A truly objective, universal "good" would be obvious. It isn't, so it isn't.
For example: Many people think it is good to save an abandoned puppy. However, other people think there are too many puppies and that puppydom is best served by euthanizing unwanted puppies. Doh! Two good ends, two conflicted means! They are *both* right, they are *both* good, but they are conflicted actions.
Much of religious history is cloaked in the idea of an objective morality that must be imposed by force upon those who do not share it. *That* is the seed of religious atrocities. And I'm not talking about violent crimes everyone knows is wrong such as murder and rape and theft. I'm talking about dress codes and sexual conduct and diet and any clearly observable personal preferences that have no bearing or violent consequences on other people. The imposition of personal preference under the guise of "objective morality" results in great evil in the name of religion, and it appears to be very easy for people to fall into that temptation.
In my beliefs, as people deliberately deny the promptings of their conscience they will eventually "sear" or "quench" their conscience and lose all connection with God. God and Christ are the Light that makes possible civil circumtances. When that Light is ignored, denied, and eventually extinguished, those people become primal and self-serving with no regard for the rights of others. That would include people labeled by the social scientists "psychopaths" and "sociopaths."
So you don't believe physical abnormalities in the brain can have any effect on behavior or morality?
So you don't believe physical abnormalities in the brain can have any effect on behavior or morality?
Sure the condition of the brain can affect physical behavior. However the choice is made it's the brain that sends the signal to the motive parts of our body that create behavior. Sever the corpus callosum and you might even find your right hand fighting with your left, one wanting to pick up a glass of water, the other not wanting to do that.
Sure the condition of the brain can affect physical behavior. However the choice is made it's the brain that sends the signal to the motive parts of our body that create behavior. Sever the corpus callosum and you might even find your right hand fighting with your left, one wanting to pick up a glass of water, the other not wanting to do that.
And if the brain has a physical defect that eliminates a functioning "moral feedback loop" for lack of a better term? That's still a conscious, deliberate, choice away from God?
And if the brain has a physical defect that eliminates a functioning "moral feedback loop" for lack of a better term? That's still a conscious, deliberate, choice away from God?
I very much doubt that a just God (as I know our Heavenly Parent to be) would hold us accountable for something we really have no control over. I believe that it's the accumulation of deliberate behavior choices towards good or towards evil that determines our character and that which we will take with us into the eternities as a foundation from which to build upon, or to remain.
I very much doubt that a just God (as I know our Heavenly Parent to be) would hold us accountable for something we really have no control over. I believe that it's the accumulation of deliberate behavior choices towards good or towards evil that determines our character and that which we will take with us into the eternities as a foundation from which to build upon, or to remain.
You just opened the door to unrepentant serial killers wandering the streets of heaven.
After all, the notable difference between psychopaths and many normal people is that they *physically* do not have a moral conscience in their brain. They can understand consequences, but they do not have the empathy that other people use to filter their behavior. It's missing. Their brains are wired without it.
Interestingly, many politicians fit the psychological profiles of psychopaths, having no capability for a moral code or remorse for harm done.
You just opened the door to unrepentant serial killers wandering the streets of heaven.
After all, the notable difference between psychopaths and many normal people is that they *physically* do not have a moral conscience in their brain. They can understand consequences, but they do not have the empathy that other people use to filter their behavior. It's missing. Their brains are wired without it.
Interestingly, many politicians fit the psychological profiles of psychopaths, having no capability for a moral code or remorse for harm done.
That's interesting. Can you link to scientific research that has proven where in the brain the "moral conscience" is physcially located and how it is determined that no such physical part of the brain exists in psychopaths and politicians?
(You don't need to do that scarmig, enjoy the day, thanks for contributing to this thread.)
That's interesting. Can you link to scientific research that has proven where in the brain the "moral conscience" is physcially located and how it is determined that no such physical part of the brain exists in psychopaths and politicians?
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