Quote from: o_e_l_e_o on September 07, 2018, 11:02:54 PM

Quote from: cheeseandcrackers on September 07, 2018, 05:06:50 PM

Something about religion that always gets to me is the fact people who believe it wholeheartedly seem to think that there's no way people could be moral without the promise of reward in another life. That seems just, so beyond pathetic to me I don't even know what to say.

Penn Jilette said it perfectly:

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The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, whats to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didnt have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.

As Moloch has pointed out, over a third of Americans are not religious. Are these 100 million or so people all rapists and murderers? Of course not. So it is complete nonsense to claim you can't be moral without religion.

Indeed, the Bible teaches us to keep slaves and to stone homosexuals to death. The fact that we don't do these things means we have an internal moral compass, completely separate from religion, to guide us.

The people who seem to not be religious, live their lives in a religious way. No, maybe they don't go to church or worship God. But they live as the dictionary says for the definition of religion... https://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t... #6: "something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience: to make a religion of fighting prejudice."

Number 3 is, "the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions." But this could be things other than standard religions, since the "world council of religions" was only an example. It could be people who believe that Big Bang is fact, when it is not known to be fact.

People who claim that they are not religious simply have non-religion as part of their religious beliefs. Dictionary definition.

Cool