RE: Simple question for Christians.
July 17, 2015 at 12:49 pm
(This post was last modified: July 17, 2015 at 12:50 pm by Kingpin.)
In response to your first point, in order for something to be harmful does that not imply you are placing value on it? Your value for human life may not line up with that other persons value for human life. I go back to Stalin and Hitler. They had their morals in relation to human life and while you deem their acts immoral that is purely subjective. The followers of the third reich did not agree with you judgment of their acts because they were following their own moral subjectivism. How can you logically call their acts heinous?
In response to hitting a child. I would never respond to my child "God doesn't want you hitting other children". My response would be, and has been with my own kids, the same as yours.
You say, ah ha! But wait. I can make the same statement because the moral standard I hold myself to comes from the character of God and in the person of Jesus Christ who when was asked what the greatest commandment was said The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, body, mind and soul and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Your response and my response to the child falls under the second command is commonly referred to as the golden rule.
it boils down to this. If there is no God, “the big questions” remain unanswered, so how do we answer the following questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? It is an historic concern. Why is there conscious, intelligent life on this planet, and is there any meaning to this life? If there is meaning, what kind of meaning and how is it found? Does human history lead anywhere, or is it all in vain since death is merely the end? How do you come to understand good and evil, right and wrong without a transcendent signifier? If these concepts are merely social constructions, or human opinions, whose opinion does one trust in determining what is good or bad, right or wrong?
Leading and famous atheists recognize this. Look at quotes from Kai Nielsen, Jean Paul Sartre, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, even atheists such as Richard Dawkins claim that evil doesn't actually exist. In his book, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life Dawkins writes: "In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
I give you Kudos for your rebuttals Rob because I value respectful discourse.
In response to hitting a child. I would never respond to my child "God doesn't want you hitting other children". My response would be, and has been with my own kids, the same as yours.
You say, ah ha! But wait. I can make the same statement because the moral standard I hold myself to comes from the character of God and in the person of Jesus Christ who when was asked what the greatest commandment was said The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, body, mind and soul and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Your response and my response to the child falls under the second command is commonly referred to as the golden rule.
it boils down to this. If there is no God, “the big questions” remain unanswered, so how do we answer the following questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? It is an historic concern. Why is there conscious, intelligent life on this planet, and is there any meaning to this life? If there is meaning, what kind of meaning and how is it found? Does human history lead anywhere, or is it all in vain since death is merely the end? How do you come to understand good and evil, right and wrong without a transcendent signifier? If these concepts are merely social constructions, or human opinions, whose opinion does one trust in determining what is good or bad, right or wrong?
Leading and famous atheists recognize this. Look at quotes from Kai Nielsen, Jean Paul Sartre, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, even atheists such as Richard Dawkins claim that evil doesn't actually exist. In his book, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life Dawkins writes: "In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference."
I give you Kudos for your rebuttals Rob because I value respectful discourse.
We are not made happy by what we acquire but by what we appreciate.
