any person thinking that the human somehow posesses a moral standard, and no religion is needed to be the guideline for morality, that is a myth. to the Atheist there is no reason on self moral compass, for why should there be?
"Atheist are routinely asked how people will know not to rape and murder without religion telling them not to do it, especially a religion that backs up the orders with threats of hell. Believers, listen to me carefully when I say this: When you use this argument, you terrify atheists. We hear you saying that the only thing standing between you and Ted Bundy is a flimsy belief in a supernatural being made up by pre-literate people trying to figure out where the rain came from. This is not very reassuring if you're trying to argue from a position of moral superiority." - Amanda Marcotte
the Biblical moral laws are the one which is perhaps the oldest, and still used as a guideline
But not even close to the best. Christian values are ancient and not adapted to our times. They come from the past, where working on the Sabbath is considered wrong but slavery okay, monarchy ordained of God with no mention of democracy or human rights. In Christianity, one is to submit and obey. Secular humanist ethics cast man as an autonomous citizen engaged in a social contract to which he consents, a far cry from biblical ethics. Although the Constitution mostly embodies Enlightenment principles, biblical morals informed choices such as only white male land owners voting, and they were welcome to own slaves. It was humanist ethics that has been pushing to change that and give women and black people the vote.
I am always amused when while watching a true crime story, they introduce people as good Christians or church-going Christians, or elders or Sunday school teachers in their churches as some kind of character endorsement so that we'll be more shocked when this person of the book turns out to be a serial rapist and murderer. I guess we're supposed to think they learned character and moral values in church because they went to one, but as has been mentioned here already, Hitler and Stalin were the product of a church upbringing. Didn't do them any more good than the serial rapist murderer, or the priest pedophile, or the televangelist grifter - all the products of the church and the moral instruction these people received there.
And don't come to me with one of those fish on your business card, either. You need to count your fingers later if you take one.
The 20th century is a lesson to the world on what atheism could achieve, sweet nothing.
This is a slander. Atheism had nothing to do with the brutality of those authoritarian Communist regimes in which a man substitutes himself for a god rather than simply pretending to channel one through him. It was the authoritarian regime that was the problem, not atheism. Where atheists exist outside of such regimes, they are generally the secular humanists in the community and serve as moral and intellectual exemplars in contrast to their religious counterparts, which in America, is apparently compatible with Republican politics.
Which of those congressional Republicans that wants to overturn democracy, impose their religion on all, and press a racist, authoritarian agenda is your beacon on a hill? They're all Christians.
I fear atheism. For their mocking of a believer, in the media, learning institutions
"Ridicule is the great equalizer against the angry, harsh judgment coming from the pulpit. It is much kinder, because it doesn't ask you to hurt the target like the angry scapegoating from the church, just laugh at it. We can offer reasoned argument to those that can care about such things, and appeal to the consciences of those that have them. But ridicule is useful to intimidate those not amenable to either." - anon
All I did was to show you what hatred the Atheist has against someone who believes in the salvation of Jesus.
All of the hatred I've seen on this thread came from you and was all directed at atheists, who have been well-mannered and treated you better than you have treated them. But then again, they're mostly secular humanists. I hold them to a higher ethical standard.
To which Martin Luther replied and called those who committed these atrocities as devils posing in the cloak of vicars of Christ.
- "What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church … a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them." - Martin Luther
- "Even though they grow weary and wear themselves out with child-bearing, it does not matter; let them go on bearing children till they die, that is what they are there for." - Martin Luther
- "What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn. Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them." - Martin Luther
Is this your moral exemplar? How do you feel about the ethics of lying, or viewing women as incubators, or Jews as subhuman?
Secular humanists do much better than this. In fact, we consider this man grossly immoral. Do you?
I was an atheist some time ago., but now I am a Bible believing Christian
Atheism isn't for everybody. It's easier to believe in a god than not. Being an atheist means that there is no devil to blame, no expectation of reuniting with deceased loved ones, no personal protection from the cosmos, only one life to live, personal responsibility for one's choices, nobody watching over you or answering your prayers, marginalization in a theistic society, and no easy explanations for our existence.
To the theist I say, try standing up like the bipedal ape you were born to be, and look out into the universe, which may be almost empty, and which may contain no gods at all. And then face and accept the very real possibility that we may be all there is for light years, that you may be vulnerable and not watched over. Accept the likelihood of your own mortality and finitude, of consciousness ending with death, of maybe not seeing the departed again. Accept the reality of your likely insignificance everywhere but earth, and that you might be unloved except by those who know you - people, and maybe a few animals. Because as far as we know, that's how it is.
Have you got that in you? Like I said, it isn't easy. I did it 35 years ago, but not too many people in the second half of life would even consider it, and if they tried, they'd find living life by their own rules disorienting, and upon leaving their church, would become relatively socially isolated.
