*snicker*

[lunadelcorvo]

(Quoted from Austin Cline's Agnosticism / Atheism Blog, Austin Cline, http://atheism.about.com/b/a/259483.htm.)

Should more atheists become more comfortable with the fact that so many people in America are "god-fearing"? If it's true that these people cannot come up with any reason for being moral without their god and religion, perhaps we are better off that they remain theists — at least for the time being. We don't want them to become atheists unless and until they are able to develop a stronger sense of morality. We don't want people to become atheists unless and until they are able to divorce morality and moral behavior from their prior religious beliefs. I shudder to think what sorts of crimes some of them might commit if they just woke up one day and stop believing in gods

So, the next time someone tells you that there's no reason to be moral for atheists, maybe a good response would be: "That's why I don't want you to stop being a religious theist. If the only thing keeping you from raping and murdering is your belief in your god, then I'd prefer if you just held on to that for a while longer. I don't want you to become a secular atheist unless and until you develop enough morally and intellectually that you can behave in a positive, moral way simply out of concern for the well-being of others. I want you to refrain from hurting others because you actually care about what happens to them, not because you're under orders from some deity."

(More meaningful, personal content coming soon, especially for some of you; you know who you are... )

Comments

[pollcat.livejournal.com]

Funny... when I first met my hubby, he told me that he had read the Bible and the Koran despite being raised a Jew who became an agnostic. When I asked him why he read them, he said, "Know thy enemy."

Sometimes when I think about you studying religion, I think of what my hubby said. ;)

I have a good friend whose ex-husband, a Jew, re-married a Christian woman. When their marriage started to have problems, she told him if he wanted to save it, he needed to find Jesus. Yeah, 'cuz Jesus will fix the fact that you married a jerk in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, they both deserve each other.

Oy.