How Do We Behave?

[Girlysprite]

There is no atheist scheme diffidus And people rarely make a point by point analyses before they do anything, people go with their gut feeling. Whether that is better or not is sometimes hard to tell.

it's not that there isn't a moral code, it is just that he went against it.

What does it say about religious people if even one of their paragorns of their faith leaps to making such big mistakes SO quickly? Moses isn't an exception on breaking rules though. It seems that many of the forefathers, and 'the people' in general were very unlikable.

If you believe in God, it is completely irrational to do something in this transient existence that would put you at risk of being damned for eternity. So why do Christians, as an example, do wrong? The reason is that they have some selfish end that allows them to overide their reasoning faculties. It is the same reason why a vastly overweight person continues to overeat. A short term tiny gain, e.g. eating a bar of chocolate, over a long term huge gain, i.e. a healthy weight and a longer and more fullfilled life. However, the code is still there and the rationale won't go away.

I'm sorry, but it isn't that simple. Many Christians who have vastle different believes and practices truly believe that they are doing the right and just thing. They don't believe themselves to be following their inner desires. When someone has been raised in a particular hard-line denomination, that person will often follow the rules of that denomination by the letter and believe only his club is right. And because the bible is so vague, there are so many groups who each think they truly are RIGHT.

The pope may be making a lot of bad descisions, but I think he truly sees himself as the representative of god at earth. At the same time, other denominations truly see him as a satan-worshipper, and the RC church as a church of the devil. They really believe it deep down at their core, and both sides use the bible to support their notions!

And I'm only talking about present-day believers. In the past pretty much everyone supported slavery. The bible supports slavery. The bible hasn't changed, the public moral has - but is the bible still right that slavery is ok?
ps: I am certain the bible doesn't actually mean 'servants'. It's clear that it's about slaves - people you can buy, sell, and have sex with when you want. Some people say that 'at least slaves are to be treated nice according the bible', but even that isn't true. You can beat them to an inch of their life, as long as they will survive a few days before dying.


And think of, if so many people with the best of intentions get it wrong, it surely says something about the bible as the source of moral code, right?

And the Christian religion is a big major religion for about 1800-1600 years. If religion would have brought better morals through fear, we would have seen a pretty much ok trackrecord, right? Of course there would be crime - people are people - but it would have been nice in general. But it wasn't. The ages have been riddled with wars, slavery, the destruction of many cultures (in the name of religion!) and many people who have been killed for disagreeing with the church. I know, people are people, but with such a 'perfect moral guide', shouldn't have Christians at least have fared better, at least a bit?

I'm not saying that the world will become peaceful if everyone would become an atheist. Though, I must add, it would be an improvement. Some wars use religion as an excuse, but some wars and terrible misdeeds are just entirely caused by certain religions. At least we'd get rid of those.