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This is a quote from Christian father St. Athanasius regarding ethics and morality. This is the website where the quote is referenced in:
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/BaumanEthics.php

So, for all those posters who deny God and there are many of you out there - have at it....

2006-09-25 15:43:09 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

Dear "God" - this has nothing to do with America or freedom of religion.

2006-09-25 15:47:16 · update #1

For more info on St. Athanasius - refer to the following website:
http://www.roca.org/oa/10/10f.htm

I look forward to the athiest's response.

2006-09-25 15:49:46 · update #2

Dear trucker girl - the link is clean - there is no porn or viruses or spyware or anyother BS. Click on the link and be enlightened and then feel free to amend your answer.

2006-09-25 15:51:33 · update #3

Dear Kathryn B - even those in jail have a patron saint keeping an eye on them - St. Moses the Black (aka the Ethiopian). Please refer to the website for more info. This site is clean with no viruses, spyware or other BS.

http://www.stmaryofegypt.net/saints_moses.shtml

2006-09-25 15:54:08 · update #4

Dear gratvol - the humble saint lived 1,000+ years before the Inquisition and had nothing to do with the deaths of millions of pour souls for no reason at all.

2006-09-25 15:58:49 · update #5

Dear Mirage - you are a lot more than one sperm and one egg meeting. You are a lot more than a whole bunch of DNA in a double helix shape. Man is looking for something in DNA that he cannot find.

2006-09-25 16:00:22 · update #6

Dear ravencadwell - absolute power corrupts absolutely. Once upon a time - Pagans believed they had power but their Gods could not compete with Christianity. When you say bigotry and misogyny - that applies to a lot of entities. No one is perfect but those who have power must know how to use it wisely or they will be corrupted.

2006-09-25 17:47:53 · update #7

Dear Kathryn B - again

In all fairness - the article means nothing to me because the agenda is slanted towards secularism. You will find low crime rates in Jewish and Muslim societies. In the US, Christian beliefs were replaced with drugs, sex and other vices and temptations. The crimes committed stem from vices. People do not have a bedrock because they have seen too much hypocrisy in their lives and basically tuned out religion. As a denier of God, you can live your life and not disturb anyone and be perfectly content - but those in US jails and prisons have no hope and resort to killing each other and prison staff or even continuing their destructive habits in prison.

2006-09-25 17:58:48 · update #8

17 answers

well, you have your opinion and I have mine. So far I'm a successful 29 year old. Soon to be moving into a luxury townhouse in a resort area of Va. I do well at my job, I pay my bills, and I'm a fairly happy individual.

I was a born again christian, till I had to deal with all the misogyny and bigotry. People lost Christ's message, they care more about power now.
Hence I went back to paganism....And I'm much happier. No my life is not out of control, and I do have morals and ethics.

2006-09-25 17:33:28 · answer #1 · answered by ravencadwell 3 · 1 0

St Athanasius' quote is absolutely true.

Atheism constitutes the denial of a basis for ethics, and fails to bind its members to any universal standard of what it means to live with purpose... what purpose? Whose purpose must one live by?

Really, this is the kind of thing many atheists assure me of, is that there is no singular agreed-upon standard that can ever arise from atheism except the nonexistence of a deity. And this is touted as "liberating". So how could anyone take issue with the quote in the first place? Isn't that precisely what atheism entails?

2006-09-25 22:49:36 · answer #2 · answered by Daniel 3 · 0 0

When you accept God in the context that you imply -- as a Western, Christian "all-powerful God" -- can you possibly be capable of anything? Either God is all powerful, in which case no one is capable -- everything is in God's hands. Or God is not all-powerful, in which case you have some choice, but no longer have an all-powerful God. Which is it?

Thomas Edison was anti-religion if not atheistic... Are you suggesting that he was not capable of anything? If so, please turn off all your lights, unplug you computer, and get ready to buy a wood-burning furnace.

Or how about a little Thomas Jefferson:
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

2006-09-25 22:53:28 · answer #3 · answered by Kip S 1 · 0 0

I wonder if father St. Athanasius can explain why there is such a small percentage of atheists in the US prison population. Atheists are moral because we choose to be, not because we are afraid of hell.

Why do societies which are highly religious, have a higher crime rate than those that are less religious?

2006-09-25 22:47:20 · answer #4 · answered by Kathryn™ 6 · 0 0

The fact that people deny god does not degrade them in the slightest. If nothing else it elevates them to give them ownership of their lives and free them from the restrictions of an obsolete and confining system of morals that has only served to do more harm than good. The only non-persons I think I can count amongst humanity today are those who give up their lives for this invisible man in the sky. They are drones and devoid of their own individuality and sense of true self worth.

2006-09-25 22:49:41 · answer #5 · answered by Wonder Weirdo 3 · 0 0

When we disattach ourselves from the idea of a "god" we are free to think, free to grow wise. God has been used as a cage to control the masses, and I have long since broken free...

“This path is clearly defined and quite simple to follow, yet most lose themselves in ideological fogs of their own making”
- Lao Tzu -

“When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape”
- Bodhidharma -

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance”
- Confucius -

I know I am more than DNA, I am Buddhist, I believe in reincarnation and ending our suffering. I believe in a "soul" for lack of a better word, a Karmic Manifestation would be a more accurate description...

2006-09-25 22:57:17 · answer #6 · answered by Shinkirou Hasukage 6 · 0 0

When you believe in God you are capable of anything (Crusades, Inquisition, Terrorism, the usual). Atheists don't have a convienant excuse for killing, raping, stealing, etc. Any system of morality that requires a god to keep people in line or to provide the laws is not morallity -- it's deific butt-kissing.

True morality is founded on the predicate of the Golden Rule. Whether you view it in the popular form, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," the buddhist/negation form, "Do not do to others what you would not have done to you," or the Church of Satan's take, the reactionary, "Do unto others as they do unto you."

"I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law." -- Aristotle

2006-09-25 23:02:57 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2 0

It doesn't matter wether you deny the Lord or not, you are capable of nothing without His consent. this quote means that once you deny God you will find it easier to begin spiraling down a destructive evil path, with sin being no problem for you. the "anythings" you are capable of are negative, not positive.

2006-09-25 22:51:33 · answer #8 · answered by erukolindo 2 · 0 0

for crying out loud your quoting a member of the Catholic Church?

have you studied history??? do you know how many evil things the Catholic Church as done? How free thought and development was suppressed for hundreds of years, how hundreds of millions have been killed in the name of Jesus and the Church. This is who you quote on ethics and morality???

2006-09-25 22:56:33 · answer #9 · answered by Gamla Joe 7 · 2 0

Deny God and remain the property and children of the devil.

John 8:42-44 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

2006-09-25 22:46:01 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

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