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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 9, 2012 at 10:43 am
(September 9, 2012 at 5:41 am)apophenia Wrote: You know, I've heard that statistic about atheists in prisons and I don't think that it really proves anything. All that proves is that atheists are better at avoiding getting caught. Which makes sense. When you spend your whole life living in sin, you're bound to be better at it than the amateur from the other side of the fence who occasionally crosses over.
I would agree it's important to avoid falling into the pitfall of assuming correlation proves causation. Other factors can always be at work.
Classic example is the rate of violent crime and ice cream sales. Both go up in the summer. A careless consumer of statistics might jump to the conclusion that ice cream consumption causes violent criminal activity.
Better statistics, because they involve a larger and more diverse population sample, are the health of societies as a whole when they are secular. Social studies have been done to show how secular Europe or Japan are happier and have fewer social problems for their lack of religion. In the US, "blue" states are also better off than "red" religious states.
There is no statistical evidence that atheism leads to moral bankruptcy.
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... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 9, 2012 at 3:15 pm
The moral of the story then (see what I did there..?) is that statistics can be used to prove or disprove anything and that the figures on their own are essentially meaningless; as we are so often told, we need to view them in context.
I do wonder, though, how a certain segment of our membership would react if the figures did truly show that atheists made up the majority of criminals?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 10, 2012 at 9:41 am
(This post was last modified: September 10, 2012 at 9:42 am by KichigaiNeko.)
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 10, 2012 at 11:11 am
I use to get my morality from the bible, But one day I just decided not to kill anymore for god.  So much killing is needed according to the bible, kill witches, gays, kids who hit and curse their parents and so on blah blah blah.
I think I am a better person for not following the bible, don't you?
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 10, 2012 at 11:19 am
(September 10, 2012 at 11:11 am)Waratah Wrote: I use to get my morality from the bible, But one day I just decided not to kill anymore for god. So much killing is needed according to the bible, kill witches, gays, kids who hit and curse their parents and so on blah blah blah.
I think I am a better person for not following the bible, don't you?
Not just that. You also decided not to rape the Midianite girls after killing all the Midianite men, women, non-virgins, boys, babies and livestock.
It's funny how I'm an altar boy and yet I never knew of this Midianite thing or indeed many of the funny bits of the Bible until I heard Dawkins on youtube.
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 10, 2012 at 1:11 pm
(September 10, 2012 at 11:19 am)greneknight Wrote: Not just that. You also decided not to rape the Midianite girls after killing all the Midianite men, women, non-virgins, boys, babies and livestock.
It's funny how I'm an altar boy and yet I never knew of this Midianite thing or indeed many of the funny bits of the Bible until I heard Dawkins on youtube.
Had you read the bible or just heard the selected highlights at sermons?
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 10, 2012 at 3:45 pm
(September 10, 2012 at 1:11 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: (September 10, 2012 at 11:19 am)greneknight Wrote: Not just that. You also decided not to rape the Midianite girls after killing all the Midianite men, women, non-virgins, boys, babies and livestock.
It's funny how I'm an altar boy and yet I never knew of this Midianite thing or indeed many of the funny bits of the Bible until I heard Dawkins on youtube.
Had you read the bible or just heard the selected highlights at sermons?
I'm not into reading the Bible much in the first place. But I know the liturgy like the back of my hand. As an acolyte, I can't hold on to the prayer book because I'm usually holding the candlestick during the procession or clasping my hands at the altar. So acolytes know the liturgy by heart. But the Bible isn't so important.
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 10, 2012 at 4:38 pm
(September 10, 2012 at 3:45 pm)greneknight Wrote: the Bible isn't so important.
This.
Also, I don't know if this has been pointed out yet, but there is nothing in the conception of god (as creator, maintainer or w/e) that has any moral guiding characteristics. It doesn't seem unlikely that it was shoehorned into ancient ethics to save from complete skepticism. Hmm.
Religion is an attempt to answer the philosophical questions of the unphilosophical man.
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 11, 2012 at 1:45 am
(This post was last modified: September 11, 2012 at 2:27 am by Angrboda.)
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RE: Where do atheists get their morality from?
September 11, 2012 at 4:49 pm
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