I understand that you believe feeling good about that something doesn't actually mean that it will lead to good actions. It doesn't mean it will lead to bad actions either. We've already established that doing good/evil is human. What you're glossing over with every unnecessary repeat is that you're not acknowledging the power of the motivation. Moral motivations and metaethics correspond very strongly to motivators. We know we are all motivated to act based on tons of biological, societal, behavioral and cognitive forces. I was simply pointing out that an objective moral authority that is believed to be good and does good COULD influence motivation for societal good, not that it has to. Those humans can build organizations and to do all sorts of good/evil things. The culpability is on the individual still was my second point. I don't claim any "magic" being makes me DO bad/good. If a defined omni-god allows for sin and volition, then the onus is on the individual to act.
Christianity to me isn't a "transactionary scheme" or a way to "escape accountability". It's a love story about sacrifice and forgiveness to me. You know precisely where your bias lies and exactly where your emotive statement was wrong. Religion doesn't tacitly justify shitiness any more than society justified slavery and oppression.. oh wait it did/does. I believe it is profound but doesn't seem a very unique motivator. People say with/without religion you'd have good people doing good and evil people doing evil but for good people to do evil things that takes religion. That's crap. It doesn't take a moral lawgiver to be a shitty person, I posit that it takes ignoring that moral lawgiver to do that. Just because it's human instinct to find a scapegoat to avoid accountability doesn't make it true.
Socially, levels of religiosity correlate to better neighbors and more conscientious citizens than their secular counterparts. They give more money, donate more time, volunteer in the community more, etc. They also belong to more civic organizations, vote, get involved in the community, etc. This holds even controlling for a host of demographic factors. This applies to religious liberals just as much (if not slightly more so) than religious conservatives. -American Grace: How religion Divides and Unites us by Robert Putnam.
You guys just love to bitch about religion and bringing down the institution, and I guess it's the place for it. To be expected.
Christianity to me isn't a "transactionary scheme" or a way to "escape accountability". It's a love story about sacrifice and forgiveness to me. You know precisely where your bias lies and exactly where your emotive statement was wrong. Religion doesn't tacitly justify shitiness any more than society justified slavery and oppression.. oh wait it did/does. I believe it is profound but doesn't seem a very unique motivator. People say with/without religion you'd have good people doing good and evil people doing evil but for good people to do evil things that takes religion. That's crap. It doesn't take a moral lawgiver to be a shitty person, I posit that it takes ignoring that moral lawgiver to do that. Just because it's human instinct to find a scapegoat to avoid accountability doesn't make it true.
Socially, levels of religiosity correlate to better neighbors and more conscientious citizens than their secular counterparts. They give more money, donate more time, volunteer in the community more, etc. They also belong to more civic organizations, vote, get involved in the community, etc. This holds even controlling for a host of demographic factors. This applies to religious liberals just as much (if not slightly more so) than religious conservatives. -American Grace: How religion Divides and Unites us by Robert Putnam.
You guys just love to bitch about religion and bringing down the institution, and I guess it's the place for it. To be expected.
"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
