I like your answers and its refreshing to know that there are some rational minds out there. I am not saying religion is irrational, just some of the people who follow it are.puckmercury wrote:
GOD no ... pun intended. I totally agree with and support thinking for yourself. It has been my experience that the most uber Christian and "moral" individuals are usually the most mindless and hypocritical. Even accepting that the basis for most modern day laws were spoon fed interpretations of King Solomon or other excerpts from the bible, we CHOSE to accept those. And ultimately, the bible was in fact written by man, no matter how anyone tries to word it. I say this as a Christian, mind you, just not a mindless one who subscribes to some prewritten dogma.Havazn wrote:
If you are blindly following someone's orders, is that really freewill?
Now, to apply some of these notions of thinking for one's self. Taking a step back from these "sacred" documents to apply some secular thinking, they truly are based on common sense and general clear thinking with a few religiously specific examples. Take the 10 commandments. Don't kill anyone, don't screw your neighbor's wife, don't take his stuff ... pretty common sense things here. Nevermind the fact that they are supposedly handed down by God to Moses ... these are a solid moral ground regardless of their genesis.Absolutely not, which is why I have such a problem with the more religious individuals I come accross. They have a common thread of accepting what they are told ... by anyone purported by their parents to be reputable. It's a self perpetuating system of ignorance. No one thinks for themselves except for a select few. This select few then dictates what is the "correct" interpretation of these documents and how they apply to modern day. The only extension of these persons are other individuals named by them. Seriously.Havazn wrote:
If you are blindly following someone's orders, is that really freewill?
Regarding your common sense statment though, I guess what I mean is that even these basic concepts become a more philisophical debate because we have to ask ourselves "What makes us believe 'dont kill anyone' is a bad thing" -- Disclaimer -- I don't think it is a good thing, im just using it as an example --.