>America was founded on the principle that man has certain inalienable rights.<
Bull! America was primarily founded by a bunch of shysters, tax cheats, slave holders, and smugglers. Even Thomas Jefferson, who was "ethical" enough to free his slaves, did not do so until after his own death.
This "generosity" by one of our founding fathers pales by comparison to a man who interacted with the priest who founded Covenant House. The man I am refering to routinely bought young ladies to work in his strip clubs. If found out that one of these young ladies was under age, he would turn her over to Covenant House. What is disturbing is that priest refused money that the employees of this man's establishment, including strippers, collected to help out this organization. The priest failed to recognize that the owner of the strip club had been touched by God and was doing God's work.
>This includes the freedom to believe as I choose with respect to religion.<
This freedom to believe has you choose was a hard won compromise. Thomas Jefferson advocated freedom from religion, while others of the founding fathers advocated freedom of religions from interference by the Federal Government. By the latter I mean that the Federal government could not interfere with the establishment of an official state religion, such as the Mormonism in Utah. The compromise reached was a delicate balance, protecting the rights of even authority figures to lead their charges in "Heart Felt" prayer, for example a prayer of catharsis after a tragedy such as what happened at the World Trade center, while banning indoctrination through recital of rote prayers, such as the Lords Prayer, by government sponsored authority figures, such as teachers.
>I doubt you would trust MY God. It's certainly not in YOUR God I trust.<
Sorry, there is only one God viewed from many angles. Each of us, even Satanists, see but one facet of the same God.
>Yet this is my country every bit as much as it is yours.<
Not if you are a minor.
>Second, I hope you're not trying to establish causation between the belief in God and morality.<
A belief in God is not necessary for morality, but it helps since morality is primarily a religious concept. Unfortunately, all too often morality is used as a substitute for secular ethics.
"But of the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in that day thou shalt surely die." The Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is morality. The serpent symbolizes those who would entice us to accept this fruit as being good. This was a warning to mankind that by substituting morality for secular ethics we would be heading down the path of genocide through "Holy War".
To illustrate the difference between morality and secular ethics I present the following:
According to Leviticus, keeping the Sabath Holy means doing nothing on the Sabath, even so much as building a fire to keep yourself warm or feeding and milking the cows (or more likely goats in those days). One of the Heresies of Christ was that he not only healed on the Sabath, he claimed that to do so was God's will. Christ recognized that God wished for mankind to follow the path of secular ethics as opposed to religious morality. One of the ironies is that even the Muslims recognize Christ as being one of the greatest, if not the greatest, philosophers and mentors of secular ethics ever.
>History abundantly shows that link is tenuous at best.<
Actually, history shows a strong link between belief in God and morality. The weak link is between religion and ethics.
>The moral 'decay' as you put it, IMO is more related to the dissolution of the harmonious family unit predominantly due to increasing work-related stress (because of diminishing returns - often leading to two worker households) compounded by the misapprehension that one must acquire certain specific materialistic milestones in order to be successful - a relative and subjective state which is tragically mistaken for happiness.<
True enough, but you overlook the role that television plays in this degeneration. I am not refering to sex and violence, but the depersonalization of life in general. Parent routinely use television as a substitute for interaction with their children, even when they would otherwise have the time, and many people vegetate in front of the television rather that attempt to learn how to interact with other people.
>The divorce rate in this country now stands at 50%. Children raised under these circumstances (particularly in poverty) are often understandably rudderless. I don't doubt, tho, that a strong belief in one God or another can help stabilize some of these situations.<
This is no worse than packing kids off to boarding school.
>Moreover, your assertion that morality is worse today than previous decades is most certainly a misperception based on your extremely limited life experience (as compared to our generations as a species).<
I beg to differ. During the Salem witch trials, during which one of my ancestors was convicted of witchcraft, morality was much more intense than it is currently, what was lacking was ethics, as Doctors took advantage of the histeria to eliminate not only competing herbalist, but also midwives, and land barons in collaboration with magistrates utilized the frenzy to elimated the owners of land they coveted. What is disturbing is how much this resembles the current war on drugs, with its justification of asset forfeiture laws.
>Do you really believe the dozen compounds and water that is the building blocks of us randomly occured? What intellegence is it to direct 2 cells to divide and divide and decide to form a hand, a eye? Just random luck? I don't think so.<
Well actually, according to to quantum physics, all possible outcomes occur, with each divergent event creating a new reality. Thus, no matter how improbable, life was destined to emerge, and it is only in those realities in which man actually did evolve that he is around to contemplate his own existance.
Of course, this also implies divergent pasts, meaning that all possible pasts are also valid. Thus, not only did mankind evolve spontaneously through chemical reactions, but God created the earth with two fully evolved humans as well.
>You're right...these things evolved by natural selection. But you don't have to take my word for it. I'd be happy to point you to any number of credible scientific references. For the layman, try Richard Dawkin's: The Blind Watchmaker - a classic.<
Natural selection for past evolution is only a theory, although there is a lot of evidence for it. What we can prove is that natural selection is occuring today. But, then again, we can also prove guided evolution, such as that man has imparted upon dogs and cattle. |
