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Can we be good people without religion?
- Thread starter Jeremiahcp
- Start date
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
As soon as I saw all the Bible quotes I stopped reading; the Bible means nothing to me, it proves nothing to me.
HonestJoe
Well-Known Member
Well first, “not religious” doesn’t automatically mean atheist (and vice-versa for that matter) and people can be of various religions without a nation state having (imposing?) a singular state religion.
You identify several different ways people can group and work together which to me only goes to show that religion, while one option, isn’t a requirement. I don’t see any logical difference between the idea that individuals can’t be good without religion and the idea that states can’t be good without religion.
Yes.
We can even be good people despite religion.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
I think people can and already do form groups without religion.
First although grouping is natural and good for survival of the individual it is not good for survival of the species.
Religion is one way we bridge the groups. You need to replace religion with another bridge, a world wide cause that groups all humans under it yet is individual. The only other natural bridge is a great or large disaster. The group divide falls when encountering a major disaster.
First although grouping is natural and good for survival of the individual it is not good for survival of the species.
Religion is one way we bridge the groups. You need to replace religion with another bridge, a world wide cause that groups all humans under it yet is individual. The only other natural bridge is a great or large disaster. The group divide falls when encountering a major disaster.
What is religion? These groups may be a religion unto themselves.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
When I was a kid I never actually learned how to tie my shoes the right way, one day I panicked that my mom was gonna catch me with untied shoes again and scold me, so I invented my own way of tying my shoes right there on the spot, and I still tie my shoes like that to this very day, hence proof that not everyone must follow the same path for the same results.
(or truly Scot)
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
And I suppose the collection of pens in my desk drawer is also a religious group.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
"First although grouping is natural and good for survival of the individual it is not good for survival of the species."
That is just wrong. Human survival to this day is the result of working in groups.
So are War's, genocide.
LOL You never know... you would have to listen to their conversations.
Thief
Rogue Theologian
and when questioned.......He replied....
Do not call Me good. No one is good but the Father.
I do not allow it for myself
I am not the Standard
and I have no religion
but most people I meet seem to like me
no accounting for taste
My answer depends on what you mean by the question, Jeremiah.
If you mean,
“Can an individual who possesses no particular religious affiliation or a society devoid of religious influence be encouraged to a virtuous or ethical engagement with others?”
then my answer is
“Yes, of course.”
If you mean, however, to imply that religion (being the human institution that it is) is somehow a non-factor in the development and cultivation of ethics or morality (in the collective sense, at least), then I find such a statement to be not only arrogant, but also completely ignorant of the fundamental purpose of religion and occurrences therein which date back to, truly, some of the earliest eras of human history. Consequently, I deem such a deliberate assertion as this pitiable to the point of being facetious.
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Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
The early hunter gather tribes didn't get by on their ability to network religiously, the got by as independent units.
HonestJoe
Well-Known Member
I fail to see how religion has ever done or could ever do that. There is no concrete things as religion, just lots of individual religions, many of which are directly contradictory and even in regular conflict. Religion is ultimately just another grouping, not fundamentally any better or worse than any of the others in the context we’re talking about. That’s why your suggestion that we can only have “good” societies with religion is flawed.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
When you learn how to write in complete sentences then maybe I'll read your post.
Yes.
A commitment to nourishing one's neighbor requires no god.
FWIW, I have more than once referenced E. O. Wilson's The Biological Basis of Morality.