Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lou Weed who wrote (272604)	1/11/2010 12:34:26 AM
From: Hawkmoon	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Sure, we have various philosophies and religions that espouse compassion and kindness to the lesser and weaker amongst us (that's what makes us human) but when it comes down to true power, it's the law of nature that dominates. Yep.. if you're an atheist the only law that governs humanity is the "law of the jungle". Survival of the fittest. If you hold to some moral beliefs against killing, it's only because you have failed to understand the benefit of eliminating your genetic "competition" before they eliminate you. Individual rights by right of birth only exist if agreed upon by mutual consent and collective enforcement for the sake of all of humanity. That violates the law of natural selection. Holding to the belief that we're entitled to human rights by virtue of our existence is only logical under the pretense that a higher power has bestowed them upon us by virtue of being our creator. Furthermore, it makes everyone EQUAL in death. That "sins" committed in our material existence will be punished in the hereafter. The only reason that we abide by "thou shalt not commit murder" is because of the threat of eternal damnation and punishment in the hereafter. If there is no hereafter, then self-restraint and failing to exploit every possible advantage over our fellow man is illogical and self-defeating. It permits our non-religious rivals, who lack such a belief, to hold an advantage over those who do display such moral values. And certainly there are those who believe that killing "non-believers" is a glorious duty on behalf of their god which will earn them rewards in the hereafter. Thus, as an "unbeliever", it's imperative for people, like yourself, to deny them the opportunity to fulfill their religious "obligation". Essential logic demands that it's imperative to kill any person who is threatening my life before they are able to carry out that threat. If this life is "all there is" and we're merely "worm food" when we die, then there is no logical rationale for self-restraint. Personally speaking, spiritual faith, and the belief that this mortal life is not "all there is" with regard to the purpose for our existence is very important to me. It may not be for you, but it provides a powerful moral incentive for us not to abide by our "primal nature" and to display tolerance and cooperation with our fellow man. But more importantly, there's no imperative that I have to force someone to worship any deity, let alone specifically in the manner that I worship. And no atheist has a moral imperative to force others to deny the existence of a deity, so long as that belief doesn't violate their personal civil rights. No one has the right to kill others to coerce others to adhere to a religious belief. But there is a collective moral imperative for both atheists and deists (of any faith) to prevent religious militants, or even secular tyrants, from coercing others to surrender their their individual freedoms to the will of an unelected power elite. Any form of non-democratic ideology/theology that denies individuals their basic rights of self-determination and governmental accountability is something to be opposed. It should be opposed, if only because eventually it will attempt to force us to surrender our freedoms to it's tyrannical agenda. Bottom line, the basis for many of our laws, as well as the moral values that unite our societies, are due to belief in the hereafter. Without such a belief, or even the concept of "hedging our bets", I believe societal order would quickly break down. Hawk