Quote:
Originally posted by pHaestus
Funny you should bring up morals vs. religion. I find these issues to be some of the clearest evidence that what organized religion is selling isn't what I want to buy.
For example: There are no little sins or small sins, right? And according to your argument without religion then we are all animals running around raping and pillaging. But is the percentage of people who commit adultery or lie on their taxes really much different between the churchgoers and the nonbelievers? Somehow I doubt it.
And what about raping and child molesting? How does that fit into the idea of a God who is all seeing and all knowing and in all times and places at once? In the old days this God would strike you down from on high if you dared to not take him seriously, but he does NOTHING to stop little kids from getting molested? Incongruous. And let's look at a common theme in the news:
Priest molests congregation members and periodically is moved around to do this through the course of his life. The kids or members of their family are pretty likely to turn away from God as a result. At some point the priest repents of his ways. Priest goes to heaven after a life of molesting, but those he molests burn in hell for all eternity for turning away from an organization that commits sexual criumes against them.
Most bible scholars agree that Job is an allegory, but it has been constantly played out in Catholic churches throughout the world over and over again.
And we are supposed to pray to God, who answers the prayers of the faithful. But God does NOTHING to help kids who are raped and killed by evil men. Guess their parents didn't pray enough? And one of the main missionary jobs of churches is to go to prisons and save those poor sinners after they are caught. I guess that makes sense in Job-logic since they were just a mechanism for testing out the faith of the congregation eh?
I would submit that if churches and religion are the only impediments to stop their congregation from raping and murdering, then those people are not as socially evolved as I am. Religion would seem to have dumbed them down with its carrot and stick mentality where there are dos and don'ts to live by with an eternal reward to follow rather than a real code of ethics and morals. Maybe keeping those kinds of people in a tightly confined social group IS a good thing for everyone in society then! Or a correlary:
"Are those gates put up to keep crime out, or keep our ass in?" asked the resident of govt. assisted housing in Atlanta when security gates and fence were added.
|
The churchgoers are (generally) saved and forgiven for their sins. the non-believer isn't. (The devil believes in God but he goes to hell.) Both can sin though. God loves everyone, but the saved are the ones that he has a relationship with. He wants a relationship with everyone, not everyone
chooses to do so though.(through free-will) Raping is an abuse of (God given) free-will.
The rapist may or may not be a true Christian. The little kid may or may not be. The family may or may not be. If any are, they get in.
BUT no sin goes unpunished. All receive equal repayment for their sins -even the saints- after they die.
Why, according to you, should rape bad?
-----------------------------------------------
The work of the spirit keeps people on the moral side, not religion or the church, even though that won't save them.
-----------------------------------------------
Natural selection is a factor in what animals are where, and you can breed a trait into or out of an animal, but is it really evolution, or is it simply bringing out recessive traits?