I refer you to my pizza statement above.cuddly_tomato said:Naah. Not quite so weak...Ignignoct said:So beliefs in supernatural things are inextricably tied to social behavior, and so we're hypocrites if we feel like saying God is a foolish idea, yet we don't murder, steal, rape on principle?cuddly_tomato said:No, he doesn't think that at all.
He probably thinks you have difficulty reading posts with an impartial eye though, because you completely missed the point both I and he were making.
It isn't that you don't have morals, in fact his point was THAT YOU DO HAVE MORALS, and that those morals are inherently unprovable and unscienficially justifiable concepts. They are just as much a form of belief as his god is to him. So if you wave the flying spaghetti monster in the faces of people who believe in god or something spiritual, you would be a hypocrite.
I see the point you're going for, sort of a "HEY! Break it up you two!" cease-fire, but it seems weak and betrays its purpose in that it begs to be argued, to dissolve the already-thin adhesive of your notion.
You said murder, steal, rape... prove they are wrong. No, I do not require proof. I don't need someone to tell me. I don't myself think they are right.
I am just asking, where is the proof?
Those things are wrong not just because we get taught it, but because we feel it. Guilt, conscience, other such things. But you see, to many religious people god is the same. Belief isn't the same as just thinking that there is some man in the sky, it is a feeling of something else.
Belief in a moral, belief in a supernatural entity, belief in nothing at all... it is all the same.
Even if I were to concede entirely to your argument, it'd still sound like this:
"Okay, you got me, I ran out of ideas. I guess Religion's fear-mongering sin-scare-tactics served in the creation of laws we now take for granted. All past tense. Many of us don't need your Gods anymore to be happy, well-adjusted, law-abiding citizens."
Edit: I'll admit I'm taken aback by your "prove rape is wrong" statement, it seems so far-fetched like saying, "Prove that child abuse is wrong!"
The cause of intense human suffering from rape, murder, child abuse, molestations, etc, is reason enough.
So there's your buzz-phrase: "Intense Human Suffering."
Go ahead and reply about war/"good" murder/etc. I'll be waiting.