Moral Libertarians wrote:The Cookish States wrote:Meh. I believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Noow, cue the Atheists with their knowledge produced mostly by scientists who seem to believe that everyone should live with the same depression as them that there is no afterlife and you will be nonexistant in 100 years. That is depressing, have hope, have faith, in religion, as opposed to believeing nothing is important, there is no judgement after life, and that you have no obligation other than to yourself to abide by a moral code (Which is dumb, because your moral code can change instantly as it only applies to you and what is good for you, so in theory, a lesser person could shoot a baby to save his own life (If given that ultimatum). Religion produces a definate standard (In most cases) which means, even if there is no God, it's still ore effiecient for guiding people than "Your personal beliefs"
Hitler abided his personal beliefs
Manson did too
Oh, and let's not forget every rapist and pedophile on the planet...
This isn't saying you all are above things, but it's possible for you to do it if YOUR moral compass says it's right.
I don't need religion to fill the "vast, empty hole" in my life that exists because of my lack of belief. I'm sorry, but what you've said is quite frankly ridiculous. There are many other things on this planet which can make people happy. And there are many things I find important. Godless heathen I may be, but neither I nor nearly every single other member of society would kill a child, or torture someone, not because of the teachings of some old book, but because of a shared set of cultural values (I'm not even going to go into the hypocrisies of, say, the Catholic Church, because that's not the point I'm making). You've surely heard of the crusades, right? Before you say that was a long time ago etc., I'm sure their beliefs were every bit as sincere as yours - the priests and bishops simply had a different interpretation of them.
I'm not trolling here - I'm just making it clear that I don't feel like some lost soul wandering about, awaiting my oblivion with despair, just because I don't follow some religious teachings. To claim this would be a misunderstanding of the relationship between religion and contemporary society.
Okay, if a religious person commits murder, i'm not saying "well that's okay". All I can say, is that the Ten commandments forbid murder outside of warfare. Someone who follows their own moral compass may consider child molestation fine, as there's always a way to justify anything you do, even using religion. The difference is that religion clearly states "No, that is wrong" which makes the excuse of "I did it for God" invalid, whereas the excuse, "I feel as though it's right" can't be argued, because to each is own (You know?).
Plus, priests, preachers, cardinals, and even the pope will have to answer for their sins, because God sees everything...except Mexico.
Also, I shouldn't have tried to imply you are "lost souls", I suppose that's inaccurate. But still, I am just barely clinging to my faith and the thought of losing it terrifies me, so I just assumed...
Sorry. But I stand by my beliefs for now.