So you aren't coerced or forced to be one way or another? How's that possible? God is all powerful and therefore you had no choice in the matter. He wills that you surrender to him in faith and repentance, but yet you aren't.
Yeah.Some people need a god to behave, no doubt. It's ironic, cause, god shouldn't desire these people in the first place because they aren't inherently good, just acting good out of fear of god's wrath.If you see a child walking down the street and someone bludgeons him to death, you don't need to believe in a god to have compassion or morality. But even in non extreme cases, most people behave due to the consequences of breaking laws, or self evident maturity- you wouldn't want that shit done to yourself. I would think, even if it was revealed that there was no god, people would still want to live in a civilized society. I think we are better than a bunch of low life savages.
For me to believe God is all powerful I would first have to establish he exists in the first place.I see no evidence of that, the horrors of this world proves that even if there is a God, hes a c.unt.
This implies that some of us are inherently good. How so and who? What's the standard for that goodness? You also suggest that believers only pretend to be good out of fear of God's wrath. An all powerful, all knowing God wouldn't be able to recognize genuine belief over phony belief?
Some people believe that the afterlife is there waiting for them and if they are good they will be rewarded and if they are evil they will be punished.Some people believe that this is it and there is no afterlife, they live their lives morally right or morally wrong, but thats people for you.Religion was created to try and keep the morally wrong in check..
Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers provide arguments and guidelines on what it means to live a good and virtuous life for oneself and others without a religious aspect.
Sure, that's true. My mother has a subjective standard also. Why is one subjective standard better than another?
Everything is arguably subjective.The point is that 'living a good and virtuous life' or a philosophy which promotes these principles does not have to include religion.
Childrens fiction book (Bible) talking snakes,immaculate conceptions, Arks, sky wizards.Funny stuff...
Do you feel that it is better let someone live how they want or provide warning if they're not on the "straight and narrow"?Not a trap LOL....just curious.
What constitutes good and virtuous living?
I do not believe in the hereafter. What would be the purpose of a warning and where would it come from? Humans intuitively know when they are doing something wrong and their retribution is in the here and now.
In a hundred million years there will be no earth, no memories of humans and their various mythos and superstitions, and certainly no one to care that such a pedestrian planet and it's utterly insignificant population ever existed. That some troglodytes left behind by evolution still cling to the mentally ill delusion of an imaginary "friend/ trunk monkey" in the sky- is completely irrelevant to intelligent conversation.
This is for each of us to determine for ourselves.
I'm not entirely sure about living life on one's own terms. This implies that if someone's terms were negative or evil, it would be okay, which I don't believe it is. Like it or not, we live amongst others it is only right to show them consideration.
The purpose of the warning is to help someone remove themselves from dangerous situation/condition and it's comes from a place of love for others.What is the source of that intuitive thinking and what is the retribution currently experienced? Laws of men and punishment therein?
How does religion keep the morally wrong in check?
Warnings come from our conscience and from others who love and care about us. Everyone has a conscience (even sociopaths can feel the personal shame of failure and disapproval, even though they may not feel guilt or empathy for the suffering of other people). Punishment is synonymous with retribution; they are one in the same. Intuition comes from within us.
the explanation is in the previous postthey check their behaviour in a hope they will be rewarded in the afterlife.If they thought there was no afterlife they would have no consequences and a person without fear of consequence is very dangerous indeed.
So you're suggesting that our conscience (or intuition) is just in us....not instilled. That we instinctively understand right from wrong without any objective standard as a basis of comparison. That would suggest that it could be detected or even isolated in the gene code. Further, how can you trust your conscience....your intuition if it's grounded in subjectivity? Sociopaths actually have a lack of conscience or perhaps a denial or suppression of conscience. If they experience shame it's probably at odds with a non-sociopath; yet, who is right and who is wrong?
But the morally wrong don't adhere to a Godly standard. Their subjective perspective is diametrically opposed to God's objective standard.
the majority decides.A brief explanation of how the world works in one sentence. "You can do whatever you like in life, but if other people dont like what you are doing they will stop you"
how do you know what Gods standards are, he may be pulling our legs...
