(August 20, 2013 at 11:20 pm)ronedee Wrote: Are these just pirated Christian "words"? Or do they have any meaning to you at all?
1. Can you have Faith in anything/anyone (as an anti-?), or is it just a word? Is having Faith(in anything) always a let-down, as so many claim?
2. And Hope? Is that just another word like Faith, or does it mean something very different? Hope is very powerful to many people with, and w/o religion. Is it "false" hope that keeps them going? Or is it real in any sense?
3. Love. What is that? Isn't it more than an emotion ....really? Is there any amount of words, phrases, adjectives that can truly describe LOVE, other than the experience itself? I mean, love can do so many things, on so many levels! And effect/affect us in so many ways! It's probably the strongest experience we will ever know besides death itself.
Why are these: virtues/values/emotions/words etc. so important to everyone regardless of religion?
Is it logical to have these virtues; with the many things they spawn? Is it a function of social necessity? Or a tool to manipulate for personal gain and profit? Would we be better off w/o them? Would we be human w/o them. Where do they fit in your evolution of man? i.e. Did one day the "ape" wake-up and not want to eat its young?
Whats your take on these very powerful words, and their effect on our lives? Gut, not textbook, please!
The pity is that there are some actually very good questions buried in this post but the way that you have expressed it was only ever going to rile an atheist. I am sure you recognise that all of these concepts existed and were discussed ad-nauseam well before the birth of Christianity.
Ancient Greece pondered on the different forms of love 400 years before the first Christian and indeed Greek has 3 very separate concepts of love paraphrasing as love of country, brotherly love and sexual love.
Hope was also recognised by them as an integral part of the human condition - see the story of Pandora in ancient Greek myth.
Faith, as for love, needs further definition. If you mean faith in god then obviously that doesn't exist for an atheist. If you mean faith in the actions of your fellow man then it probably means much the same as would faith in the proper functioning of a given device, or in the law or a myriad other aspects of life.
Obviously the idea that it is only Christianity that stops us from eating our children is offensively stupid.
Faith, love and hope are probably all fairly important parts of our evolution as an intelligent social creature. Love appears not to be unique to us. One could argue neither are the other 2 although the combination in another creature on this planet may not exist.
Does a dog hope? It has faith and love covered for sure.
