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Atheism means you can do anything you want, never have to give anything up, and never be inconvenienced.
If the only thing that keeps you from "doing anything you want" is the fear of some supernatural father figure doling out punishment, that's a bit of a condemnation of your internal ethics, isn't it?
It's not as if there isn't a point to the argument, mind. I do rape, steal and murder as much as I want - that is, not at all. It appears I can check baser impulses without the threat of supernatural consequences.
So the people writing about Syria, Damascus, etc --- giving oral account of its history, was just making all that stuff up?
You need to sort the wheat from the chaff. The Odyssey is a rip-roaring tale of people greater than life, set in an actual setting. As is a whole lot of the Old Testament.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sumerian_Summer
Church membership declines
Get woke, go broke.
Many churches have adopted leftist/marxist type values over the past few decades.
Yeah! Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked - what does that have to do with Christianity?
You need to sort the wheat from the chaff. The Odyssey is a rip-roaring tale of people greater than life, set in an actual setting. As is a whole lot of the Old Testament.
The Nephilim is kind of where the Old Testament and The Odyssey merge for me.
So the people writing about Syria, Damascus, etc --- giving oral account of its history, was just making all that stuff up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA
You need to sort the wheat from the chaff. The Odyssey is a rip-roaring tale of people greater than life, set in an actual setting. As is a whole lot of the Old Testament.
I really wish the left could take credit for this, but that isn't the case. People are becoming less religious because religious belief if silly and contrary to everything we know about reality.
It is more likely that people are becoming less religious because it makes more sense.
<70% of Sweden is nonreligious, and <60% of Japan is. They have low crime rates, civil societies, and are people generally thought of as being pleasant and kind.
The US has been majority religious since its foundation and has huge problems with violence.
The underlying problem is the way that our society addresses it's problems; we were founded by Puritans and much of our way of doing things focuses around punishment for making mistakes. A lot of our society seems to fetishize the idea of punishing those that they view as having done wrong: execute them, let them waste away in the streets, take away their rights...
I think that to a large degree, religion is being supplanted by a pragmatic humanism among younger people. I don't view it as amoral.
As I stated and implied before, one does not need to be a member of a church to have faith. I have not set foot in a church in over twenty years. But I have faith, regardless of church.
If the only thing that keeps you from "doing anything you want" is the fear of some supernatural father figure doling out punishment, that's a bit of a condemnation of your internal ethics, isn't it?
It's not as if there isn't a point to the argument, mind. I do rape, steal and murder as much as I want - that is, not at all. It appears I can check baser impulses without the threat of supernatural consequences.
Some people realize that without a set of rules and a supernatural overseer they would be raping, stealing, murdering, treating others terribly.
If churches keep them from doing so, fine by me.
But to be fair, religion is often used as a an excuses for committing crimes against others.
Last edited by GotHereQuickAsICould; 04-04-2021 at 06:28 AM..
I really wish the left could take credit for this, but that isn't the case. People are becoming less religious because religious belief if silly and contrary to everything we know about reality.
It is more likely that people are becoming less religious because it makes more sense.
Whatever the reason, it is certainly great news.
Why does anyone have to take credit for it? People have free will and make their own choices, no one is claiming faith has diminished only religion. Like any business I guess they don't like seeing their bottom line go down, before you know it Olstein will be forced to drive a domestic car...
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