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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (246274)	8/16/2005 8:09:41 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1582684

CJ, let me restate. Atheism itself doesn't provide much of a motivation for charity. How can it if it's nihilistic by its very definition? Atheism is the belief there is no deity. How do you get nihilism out of it? Maybe secular humanism can succeed where atheism could not, but to me, secular humanism seems like a house without a foundation. What happens when the winds blow and shakes the house? Will faith in secular humanism stand? When the wind blows and shakes the house, what does religion give you? ted

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (246274)	8/16/2005 8:26:15 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1582684

"Atheism itself doesn't provide much of a motivation for charity." Sigh. Ok, if you want to pull in this line of argument, realize that those random forces, and they really aren't always random, have also produced the characteristic of "altruism". We will ignore those hardwired cases like ants, bees, prairie dogs and what not. Many higher animals like porpoises, bonobos and chimpanzees who engage in many forms of altruism including providing food the injured or lame, providing various forms of life support like holding a member at the surface so they can breath and even sacrificing their own lives by distracting a predator or trying to rescue others from dangerous situations. I suppose you could argue that these animals were just expressing their faith, but... So ok, if you take as your thesis that atheists by their nature are self-centered and only concerned with Number 1 and view everyone else as something lesser, you might have a point. And certainly, I have run across such fine specimens of humanity who are atheists. But I have also known lifelong Christians with the same sort of attitudes. Concern for others, appreciation of humanity and a willingness to sacrifice for the good of others are not qualities solely held by people of faith.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (246274)	8/16/2005 9:39:19 PM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1582684

>CJ, let me restate. Atheism itself doesn't provide much of a motivation for charity. How can it if it's nihilistic by its very definition? How is it nihilistic? We "believe" in what's there. We know that we'd like to be helped if we're in trouble, so we'll help others too. -Z