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Monday, October 22, 2012

DON'T GIVE ATHEISTS A BAD NAME


Some bogs upset me. They give atheism a bad name. The problem is they accept the basic premise of many of the religions they are disparaging. That premise is you cannot have morality without having a God. I argue you can have morality without believing in some God or a divine spirit of some kind.

As explained in yesterday’s blog (firetreeblogspot), although morality is culturally sensitive, it has a fundamental biological base related to survival. Those who study these things find the same fundamental set of values in humans in geographically dispersed areas. Some cultural beliefs are different from geographic area to geographic area but we conserve the sense of self-preservation worldwide; the sens of doing what we have to do to survive,  it is universal. Likewise, we conserve the sense of a supreme force universally. Likewise, anthropologists tell us that every culture known has some form of spiritual belief. The problem comes when humankind rely on the non-biological interpretation of what that force of spirit is. They name it, draw pictures of it, hang it on a cross, etc. The senses did not create God nor did God create our senses—evolution created our sense but we created God. Therefore, the sense of a superior force is not the same as our interpretation of that sense. Thus, we have an innate sense of a supreme force, and innate sense of values but learned interpretations of these senses called religion and morality.

We could but don’t draw pictures of the sense of hunger or the taste of salt but they are just as real as the sense of a supreme force or the sense of values.  Therefore, if you believe in these things as outline above, you should be able to understand that it violates a basic sense of values to couch your atheistic remarks in four letter words to disparage people who carry signs telling atheist, fornicators, etc to go to hell as shown on Pharyngula Blog. Disparage them to point out their errors but be ethical about it. Many professors and teachers are atheists but they do not talk to students in their entering class with four letter words but then treat them with respect after they graduate. Just because you do not believe in what they believe in does is not give you license to swear, be indecent, kill people or what ever. Don’t turn people off your message by giving atheism a bad name. 

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