How do you justify your belief that killing is wrong?
If there is no God, there is no absolute standard for right and wrong. If there is no divine decree of "Thou shalt not murder", then on what basis do you condemn murder? Why don't you celebrate murder as Evolution's method of eliminating the weak?
So if "religion kills", so what? What makes killing wrong? What is your basis for your judgment?
You have to borrow the morality of religion in order to attack religion!
2006-11-30 00:36:56 · 9 answers · asked by 5solas 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Wow... talk about playing Devil's Advocate here....
2006-11-30 00:45:35 · answer #1 · answered by aali_and_harith 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So it would have never dawned on the human race that killing was wrong if some cavemen hadn't wrote it down? You would just start killing people if you lost your belief in a sky daddy?
It is in our genes to know that killing is wrong. If it weren't then we wouldn't have survived as a species. The first time you experience pain you know that it is something to be avoided. And when you come to realize that others are just like you, then you know that you don't want to cause others pain because you wouldn't want them to cause you pain. Of course there are people who are mentally ill who don't know this...sociopaths.
Just because evolution is survival of the fittest doesn't mean that is the way we want society to run.
On what religious basis does the theist condemn slavery? You have to borrow from secular ethics in order to attack slavery.
"Atheists can perhaps express compassion more easily than believers because we are not confused by fatalism ("Whatever happens is God's will"), pessimism ("We deserve to suffer"), salvation ("Death is not the end"), retribution ("Justice will prevail in the afterlife"), magic ("Pray for help"), holy war ("Kill for God"), forgiveness ("I won't be held responsible for my mistakes"), or glory ("Suffering with Christ is an honor"). Since this is the only life we atheists have, each decision is crucial and we are accountable for our actions right now." - Dan Barker (former preacher)
2006-11-30 09:05:46 · answer #2 · answered by AiW 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well first of all Einstein, there are many spiritual people who do not believe in religion. Do I need to belong to an *organized* religion in order to believe in God? Can I not use my conscience better judgment and morals to live my life in a Godly manner?
There are some religions that use God as a reason for killing, if by the way you haven't noticed. So if I wanted to borrow morality from anywhere, It would most definitely not be religion.
Maybe you should have addressed your question to atheist, who even then have more morals and better judgment than most religious people.
2006-11-30 08:47:50 · answer #3 · answered by kabooodelzzz 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"If there is no God, there is no absolute standard for right and wrong" is one of the most incredibly ignorant statements I've ever read. A close runner up is "You have to borrow the morality of religion in order to attack religion".
Simple compassion has nothing whatever to do with religion. Religion may claim it, but compassion existed before anyone even thought about inventing a deity. Compassion - the ability to put yourself in the place of another - is a human trait. It's one of the reasons we have been able to survive for millions of years. Do you want to be killed? No. Do you want your loved one to be killed? No. Then it follows it's wrong to kill someone else. It follows that if an intelligent person is capable of understanding pain, suffering and loss, he also understands it's wrong to inflict these things on others - at least without good cause.
2006-11-30 08:43:54 · answer #4 · answered by Sweetchild Danielle 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"You have to borrow from the morality of religion in order to attack religion."
Why do you think we get our morality from religion? That is one HUGE supposition!
Lets say you say "I get my morality fromt he bible." I'm assuming this because you sy "Thou shalt not murder." So, without this decree, you wouldn't know if murder was right or wrong? Really?
How about the Old Testement. You say we should follow it. Sure! The laws make sense! (The "murder" one you just mentioned for example). But there are SOME bits of the OT that you toss out, I am betting. Like the laws about menstruating women and not eating shellfish and stoning people for working on the Sabbath. So, by what method are you chosing WHICH bits of the OT to follow and which bits to pitch? See? Your morality is coming from somewhere other than the bible, if you are able to tell which bits to use and which bits to pitch.
2006-11-30 08:48:34 · answer #5 · answered by Laptop Jesus 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sorry pal, that lame-*** argument has been used before.
It just doesn't wash.
The fact is, there is no god, no heaven, no hell, no afterlife.
We have ONE life, one.
So the killing of someone who is living a life, is just plain wrong. It's not something that needs to be taught, it should be simply understood. Ask any 6 year old and he'll tell you that hitting someone else, is bad and not nice.
Religion on the other hand makes up all kinds of insane and arbitrary rules to say that it is.
Heck, by your own "logic" abortion is A-Ok because the kid gets to heaven that much faster. Yet you decry it as murder. Why?
2006-11-30 08:41:10 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Nice try. Tell that to Japan which is about 1% xian yet has 1/10th the murder rate of the USA. Clearly our tribal mentalities abhor wanton killing. We are not insects, we are primates.
2006-11-30 09:05:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
but the fact is that people who kill in the name of their religion are also breaking those self same religiously bound rules
as for killing being bad, we dont need religion to know that, look at the effect death has on the immediate family of the deceased, we dont need religion to tell us that causing that kind of pain is wrong surely?
2006-11-30 08:43:52 · answer #8 · answered by Austin Darkora 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You don't need to be religious or Christian to know that immoralities, like killing, are wrong.
2006-11-30 08:54:43 · answer #9 · answered by TarKettle 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋