(December 4, 2018 at 11:17 am)Gae Bolga Wrote:Actually I was not trying to argue stats. I think it's pointless. I'd rather see a conversation about trying to understand human motivations to kill and whether any social construct (law, morality, etc.) can prevent people from killing others as I stated. If you want me to posit that religion is a reason for killing, it is. Lack of religion isn't a reason for killing because it topologically isn't a thing, it's a lack of a belief. Atheism doesn't motivate, but anti-theism does. It's simply the way the pendulum swings. I know of very few atheist who only hold their atheist belief in a hermetically sealed container by itself.
I think just laws can deter killing. I think just personal, societal and objective morals can deter them as well. I don't think the world is getting more secular is the only factor in increased death toll, or overpopulation, overcrowding , advancement of technology or compounded moral/social injustice. I'm not dismissing them as underlying attributive reasons either.The argument that religion kills people though is petering out and I don't think it speaks to what's more important and that's finding a better path forward.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
