Into the Night
Verified User
Scientists are people. They are just as religious or moral as anybody else.
A beginner's guide to being an atheist, by Richard Dawkins
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Into the Night
Verified User
Biden and the Democrats got voted out, Sybil.If that "universal moral law" is survival of the species, I agree. A human society needs to follow Ben Franklin's advice: “we must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” If a society doesn't "hang together", then they will be picked off individually by predators, be it lions, tigers and bears or a human society that does, indeed, hang together.
Human societies that self-destruct often don't leave many records compared to those that do.
It's evolution: survival of the fittest. Not just individuals, but societies. As some have noted in other threads, our society seems to be self-destructing. The current regime is weakening us in an effort to take over but they are also weakening us against our enemies and our competitors both politically and economically.
Dutch Uncle
* Tertia Optio * Defend the Constitution
LOOK AT ME, CYPRESS! LOOK AT MEEEEEEEE!
Too bad you never actually read anything.
Lord of the Flies: A Harmful Distortion of Children’s Nature
William Golding was a schoolteacher, and "Lord of the Flies" is a teacher's worst nightmare. But it isn't true. Real kids in danger cooperate to save themselves.
www.psychologytoday.com
Into the Night
Verified User
There is no such thing as a 'Christian atheist'. There is no such thing as a 'Jewish atheist'.
Dutch Uncle
* Tertia Optio * Defend the Constitution
Into the Night
Verified User
I don't know any atheist that hates anyone, and I know several atheists.
Mutual cooperation is not morality. Even ants do that. Mutual cooperation is based on self interest and self preservation. That's perfectly consistent with scientific principles of Darwinism.
Humans conscience tells us what we ought to do, even though we frequently don't want to do it. Cheating, adultery, murder, lying, gratuitous sex, avarice, selfishness are only some examples. That kind of moral law imprinted on our mind is not explained by scientific Darwinian principles of self-preservation.
The strange thing is that we all to frequently do not want to fulfill these moral duties, or resist doing so, even though you are saying morality just comes naturally to us.
Altruism and social cooperation is not morality. It's based on utility and self-interest. There really is no evidence of ancient and archaic people sacrificing their resources outside the tribe or community to help complete strangers or rivals. They would even kill, sacrifice, or banish members of their own community for reasons of self-preservation.
You are free to believe the love a mother freely given to a son is just an electrochemical reaction between electrons in the brain. She has no control over it because chemistry and the motion of subatomic particles are deterministic.
I don't buy it, because experience and intuition tell me a mother's love is more than just electrical reactions between electrons.
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Into the Night
Verified User
Dawkins is not an atheist.
Into the Night
Verified User
Tribal societies have government, Sybil.No more than public school is a "means to control humans".
It's social indoctrination. Consider the Amish or Mennonites. They are clannish, stick with their own and are united by their faith. You've seen me write about the adverse consequences of eliminating the draft where the military indoctrinated people to unify to protect the Constitution. After the draft ended, we had "the Me Decade" and, 40 years later 1/6 which was a demonstration of "me, me, me". They didn't give a shit about the United States, their fellow Americans or anything except themselves. Without a common cause and common beliefs, people drift in different direcdtions.
This is why I always laugh at the anarchists who think humans can exist without government in tribal societies. Sure they can, until some city-state army comes by, takes their food, livestock, women and burns their huts down. LOL
Into the Night
Verified User
There is no such thing as a 'militant atheist', Sybil.
Dutch Uncle
* Tertia Optio * Defend the Constitution
But it is explained by social conditioning. To use Freud, it's our superego laying a guilt trip on our ego, or Id.
As for cheating, adultery, sex, etc, some behavioral research:
26 Surprising Statistics on Cheating Spouses - HRF
Just as marriage has been a time honored traditions in many societies throughout human history, so is the fact that spouses will cheat on each other. Most societies see marriage as a monogamous relationship, which requires a spouse to not have sex with anyone else. For some reason, however, some...
healthresearchfunding.org
Cheating Spouse Statistics
1. The percentage of affairs that begin at work: 60%.2. Up to 60% of all spouses will take part in some form of infidelity at least once during their marriage.
3. 56% of men who have affairs claim to be happy in their marriages.
4. Women and men cheat at the same rate within a marriage, although the reasons why women cheat are very different from the reasons that men cheat.
5. The most common reason why a woman cheats on her spouse: emotional satisfaction.
6. Research consistently shows that 2 to 3% of all children are the product of infidelity.
7. Infidelity is becoming more common among people under 30.
8. In many cases, infidelity never gets discovered.
9. Most people are surprised by their own behavior at the start of an affair.
10. Almost everyone admits to having fantasies that involve someone other than a spouse.
11. 34% of women who had affairs claimed to be happy or very happy in their marriages.
12. Cheating is not the leading cause of divorce in the world today. Incompatibility is the #1 document reason, making communication the leading cause.
13. Some studies put the percentage of husbands who will eventually cheat at close to 50%.
14. High school dropouts and couples in which one partner is largely dependent on the other’s income are more apt to become cheating spouses.
15. Although the cheating laws are rarely enforced, adultery is considered to be a crime in Michigan, Minnesota, and South Carolina.
16. The percentage of marriages where one or both spouses admit to infidelity, either physical or emotional: 41%.
17. 22% of men admit to straying at least once while being married.
18. The average length of an extra-marital affair: 2 years.
19. 31%. That’s the percentage of marriages that stay together after a cheating spouse has been discovered or the affair is admitted.
20. Men [74%] are more likely than women [68%] to say that they would have an affair if they knew that they wouldn’t be caught.
21. 17% of cheating spouses have an affair with one of their in-laws.
22. The percentage of cheating spouses who have a fling while on a business trip: 35%.
23. Only 3 to 4% of spouses have cheated on their significant other in any given year.
24. 99% of Americans state that they expect their spouse to stay faithful to them.
25. More Americans today [80%] say that infidelity is wrong than they did in 1970 [70%].
26. The overall chances that a marriage will have one spouse cheat over the life of the marriage: 1 in 4.
Freddy Figbottom
Was it me?
that's it's intended purpose and it has been used for such.
Freddy Figbottom
Was it me?
yes they do.
Freddy Figbottom
Was it me?
Freddy Figbottom
Was it me?
but their religious utterings carry no more weigth than the the garbage man's.
Freddy Figbottom
Was it me?
they moral relativists and eugenicists consider their anti-human ideas to be awesome and fun.
even Nazis thought of themselves as good people.
Freddy Figbottom
Was it me?
it is morality.
morality is also good for the self.
yes it is.
morality is a win win for self and others.
in groups can be extended to include outgroups in the big tent of morality. see the good Samaritan.
electons have nothing to do with morality, but religion does.
you're still trying to comingle science and religion, in an idiotic fashion, I might add.
you're an evil person committed to the demoralization of humanity.
Can’t help you, dude, on your need for some deity or religion as a source for human moral behavior. You’ll have to argue with cultural anthropologists who say you’re full of shit. The same experts will tell you that murder, selfishness, greed, non-cooperation, etc. are traits not conducive to the survival of the clan, so moral codes against those behaviors developed. Argue with them, not me.
Moral behavior comes naturally to us as a species. It’s actually one of man’s inventions - religion - that is a major flaw in that behavior.
Your entire body and being is one mass of biochemical reactions. To deny that is absurd. The fact that species have evolved with traits that increase their odds of survival, including that motherly love, is undeniable. Motherly love is common across many species of animals.
Different emotions stimulate reactions in different parts of the human brain. To deny that is absurd. If you do, you’ll have to argue with neuroscientists who will say you’re full of shit.
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