religion and claiming the moral high-ground
Wednesday, 31 August 2005 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eGood grief! I get so sick of religious people waffling on about how their religion is the source of morality and that their religion is what makes people good. It completely ignores the large number of good and moral atheists and it certainly doesn't take account of the many hateful religious people crowding this little planet.
I have lost count of the number of religious people who in honest perplexity have remarked to me that they don't understand how I can be a good person with a deeply held sense of altruism when I have absolutely no religious beliefs at all. It makes me shake my head in despair sometimes.
Why do people think that people should be good simply because some misguided superstition says they should? Why can't they accept that it simply makes good sense to help others?
Altruism just is the most logical way co-exist with your fellow humans.
I have lost count of the number of religious people who in honest perplexity have remarked to me that they don't understand how I can be a good person with a deeply held sense of altruism when I have absolutely no religious beliefs at all. It makes me shake my head in despair sometimes.
Why do people think that people should be good simply because some misguided superstition says they should? Why can't they accept that it simply makes good sense to help others?
Altruism just is the most logical way co-exist with your fellow humans.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Simple questions...
Date: 2005-09-07 04:13 pm (UTC)And I nearly forgot the best one:
What were Jesus' last words on the cross (which was actually in the shape of an X)?
IIRC, each of the 4 books of the Bible that reports it reports it differently.
99% of Biblethumpers won't know WHY either:
The first book of the New Testament written about Jesus' life was written over 20 YEARS after his death. Not sure how good YOUR memory is, but can you remember that sort of detail about things over 20 years ago in YOUR life?
There are 4 main books about Jesus, each written 20, 40, 60, and just over 80 years after he died.
There was a great Discovery channel show about Biblical scholars dating the books of the New Testament... very cool stuff.
Applying facts to religion always seems to leave religion a little more wanting.
In Desmond Morris' Illustrated Catwatching, he talks about how Xtians were so misled by the witch line, they also nearly extincted all of the pure black cats in Europe by burning them as they were witches familiars, and that most black cats you see will have at least SOME patch of white on them somewhere.
So, you can also have fun asking Xtians why they hate cats so much, especially if they HAVE some!
Thanks for the link on the Skeptic Bible... gotta check that.