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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greg or e who wrote (17272)	4/24/2004 11:48:13 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

"Humanism has simply cherry picked the things it likes from Christianity" Nonsense. Humanism has nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion. It builds on realities of human nature, human empathy, human need, and human cooperation. For example, a humanist would reject circumcision as a ritual because it rests on an immoral belief that some people are inherently more worthy than others. No human being wishes to believe that he/she is inherently inferior to others...so rational contemplation and consideration (Humanism) simply reflects the rationality that self interest entails familial interest, group interest, social interest, and national interest. A good rule for people to adopt would be that nobody is inhererently more worthy than you, and you are inherently no better than anybody else. Morality begins and ends with a simple truth: Supporting harm as a moral policy leaves one open to both harm and ruin. Rational self interest involves the appreciation and the defense of individual rights and autonomy. "Humanism wants to maintain radical individualistic freedom while at the same time imposing it's own dogma onto the unwashed masses." You are mixed up. It is religion which believes in imposition. Humanism believes in freedom and autonomy. Do you see ONE item of terror or destruction in the news media which is being claimed for credit by some Humanist group? Any humanists strapping on bombs, blowing up trains, or preaching racial or dogmatic superiority? "Humanism is doomed to fail because people are smart enough to realize that if there is no ultimate authority then they are free to do whatever they want." Don't be silly. Desire IS the ultimate authority. People Do do what they want. People want to survive and people want to be happy. When desire and fear are guided by myth and superstition we get the Dark Ages. When it is guided by reason and natural empathy, we get the secular State. "Homosexuality is on the verge of gaining widespread acceptance, whereas it was considered immoral only a generation ago." Of course it will gain acceptance. The only time in history it has not been accepted is when religious bigots imposed their hate upon others. "Today you are labeled homophobic if you dare to speak against it" What label would you like for being arrogant enough to impose your rules of love and caring unto others? "Soon you will be labeled a pedophobe if you dare to speak against the molestation of children" Don't be stupid. Molestation is just as much a crime amongst heterosexuals and homosexuals as it is with children or strangers. There is a difference between calling heterosexuality a crime and calling molestation a crime. "The sexual revolution is apparently just getting started" You have to remember that the fashion for homosexual love throughout history was based on the religious belief that women were unequal and that love among males was therefore on a higher plane as being among equals. In a society which values females as much as males homosexuality will flow strictly from the biological rather than from religious "morality". "Some human beings have decided that molesting children is the moral thing to do, and some have decided it is not" Very few humans think that harming children is "moral". Certainly, such a belief is highly irrational. There is a group of nuns in Canada who were molesting children for a number of years on the basis of their take on biblical moral injunctions. But these are rare in modern times where religions have been subdued to an obedience to the commonweal as safeguarded by the State. "you have no basis to call anything actually wrong" Why is it that whenever you find something especially stupid to say, you like to repeat it endlessly like a witless parrot? Where society was ruled by the Church, morality was based on whatever arbitrary rules were given by the Church. Thus we had Inquisitions, torture, and the like. Where society is ruled by Church-like ideological movements, we likewise have "morality" based on the ideology (the brutality of communism, for example). Where society reflects the will of the people, we base our morality on the conmmonweal as assessed by reason. On an individual level this means that safety and freedom are arch stones around which human behaviour is regulated. To reduce it to a simplicity: The basis for YOUR "morality" is a particular book written in primitive times. The basis of my morality is other books--but always subjected to individual and group reason. One of the goals of secular society is to assist the various religions in getting rid of their harmful (and contradictory) moral dicta through education. You see, Greg, a morality based on reason considers strapping bombs to children for the purpose of murder to be harmful and wrong. All these religious "Holy" wars may only be ended when these religious are subdued to the authority of the State, and when their differing political and moral agendas are given a rational famework.