I've submitted to the truth of reason and compassion. You demand subjugation and enslavement to a personality. I choose reason and compassion instead. Good luck continuing to defend rape and child murder.
Yes in other words such basic rules of behavior help to create order over chaos for the tribe . Intelligence chooses order over chaos . The tribe with social order is more likely to survive. Many things can be understood with common sense that comes from observation over time.
If they consulted god and he spoke with the person telling him it was right or wrong seeing a shrink is also in order.
The obvious would be the Bible. Or you can use the Pope if necessary. Or any of the synods that clarified religious positions. Or in fact every religion pretends to know what their imaginary gods believe. Can you find even one religion that doesn’t claim to speak for it’s god.
The main problem here is that you and other proponents of your general argument choose to regard these “rules” on a moralistic level; as if someone is “good” if he follows religious guidelines, and “bad” if he doesn’t. These rules are there so humans don’t fall into the risk of attaching themselves to worldly life, and not God. It doesn’t matter whether they’re Biblical rules; Hindu rules, Islamic rules... they all serve the same purpose, which is keeping man safe from the temptations of this life. Spirituality without religion is dangerous. At the end of the day, no matter what a man does, only he knows in is heart whether he is in the right or wrong. Him breaking a particular rule(s) has nothing to do with it, and how other people judge him is also totally irrelevant.
Your point that nothing is necessarily wrong with raping and murdering a child? That isn't much of a point. At least not a sane one.
No, I said that from the perspective of one who has submitted to Absolute Truth, how an individual thinks or feels about any particular event is completely irrelevant, because no matter how he/she interprets it, human conditioning (which is inherently limited) gets in the way. The ego blocks realization to the Truth because the “I” is perceiving life from the level of material identity. Does this mean that people should go out and murder children? No.
the main problem here is your making up the main problem based on nothing. The entire history of religion consists of creating moral absolutes. And claiming that spirituality without religion is dangerous is absurd since by your own criteria religion has failed miserably in keeping man safe from the temptations of this life. As a simple example we have the Catholic church which has basically functioned to protect child molesters. Or closer to home we now have the evangelicals supporting probably the least moral President in history. And learn a bit of science and you will find that not everyone knows in his heart what is right or wrong.
Only in the context of ordinary mankind who perceive reality from an emotional and dualistic perspective (like yourself). In regards to the priests that you referred to, well, when you put sexually active and celibate men in a room with virgin girls, stuff like this is bound to happen. That’s just common sense. Irrelevant, as the consequences will speak for themselves.
And what you don't understand is that every sane human being is aware of this fact without the need for your religious dogma.
Like God, surveillance cameras do not stop crimes in the act, but surveillance cams put people in prison for felonious acts against the law-abiding, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
yes that is what america is all about, big brother with his nose up everyones asses, hey just like the uk! Whats not to like about that? In the land of the free? WIth 62 million laws, such that you can look at 'anyones' life no matter what level of goody two shoes they think they may be, and find at least 4 prosecutable violations of law they are totally unaware exist.
Freedom is the ability to do what you should do. Freedom is not doing any damn ignoble thing you want to do.
A being with the capacity for empathy. Who are you to show disregard for the life and safety of a child?
Who said I show disregard for a child? I too judge according to what I believe to be true.....but I don't always trust my own judgement, so I won't always trust yours.
If you are deliberating over whether or not it is okay to murder a child, which is what you are doing here, then yes, you are showing disregard for that child. If you would like to take a firmer stance against murder, then awesome. I would welcome that.
I'm not a religious person, but the power of religion as a tool of organization and establishing the "ground rules" is obvious, so I do agree that it is useful to create a god.