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A proponent of a Middle-Eastern religion once asked me, as an agnostic, what book I read to guide me since I don't follow the bible or the quran

I responded that I have an inner compass that directs me, and I know the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. If someone doesn't have that inner compass, then all the bibles in the world are not going to make him a good person.

He just looked at me like I had two heads.

TheoryNumber3 8 Sep 19
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17 comments

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1

If someone needs an invisible noncommutative being to be their guide, I send them my invisible noncommutative hope.

3

Anyone who needs a god or gods to compel them to act well, to treat others, nature, etc. well, is a horrible person.

You know, I'm starting to believe that. We all have another side that we don't show the world.... and I've seen some of them come out with some pretty intolerant and non-xtian comments from time to time. But it's ok. They can just pray it away.

@TheoryNumber3
Precisely, that absurdity of fearing their god[s]

I see such people as having a failure of empathy and a failure of common sense. In my experience they also tend to be narrow minded, bigoted, intolerant, homophobic, racist, sectarian and prone to violence.

4

If some one needs the fear of punishment and the promise of rewards to live as a good person, they are not a good person.

3

Good discussion

3

He should be grateful you responded to his stupid question. But then....they expect that. They expect 'respect" to be given their beliefs, not yours.

twill Level 7 Sep 19, 2022

Which is exactly why they get so upset when I tie all their ridiculous arguments into pretzels.

This is the hipocracy of ALL religions and with the theory of that character called "god". Respect should be mutual and it's clearly NOT nor does he "god" or religion prompt INCLUSIVITY or tolerance! To love god is to HATE non believers and that's not true/pure love!

3

So many think that their god made humans with a flaw that only god himself can fix. In order to do this you must be into your god 24/7.

6

So many theists cannot wrap their heads around the fact that human beings do not need any religion or any God to be moral and good people. I pity them. 😉

I cannot understand how anybody can be so emotionally and cognitively deficient.

@anglophone Probably due to their upbringing. Cognitively deficient people raise more people just like them.

@Redheadedgammy I was one of them, for about 30 yrs, and you are right, but their righteous plan failed!

@tinkercreek How great that you made life work for you after going through their “righteous plan”! I’ve realized how fortunate I was to be raised by parents that didn’t subscribe to the religious BS! 😉

@anglophone I can because I was, fortunately I escaped by a combination of education and plain old growing up, sadly many do not.

7

Anybody that asks me such a question instantly reveals themselves to me as being a mental defective.

Ditto

4

He was befuddled because that truth had never occurred to him….🤔

1

Amen sister!! Hallelujah, praise the lord!!!🤠

11

Both anecdotal accounts as well as replicated scientific studies show animals have an innate sense of fairness. People have often seen remarkable instances of animal empathy (Middleway is full of shit as usual).

American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, Steven Weinberg once famously said, "With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."

Correct! It is well documented that animals have empathy and display a range of emotions. No animal has or needs a rule book that prescribes how to conduct itself amongst those of it's species.

Voltaire said: “ Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.”

I never bother with reading any of @TheMiddleWay's steaming piles of cow dung.

9

They get so brainwashed that they can’t fathom how anyone functions without religion.

7

I don't see why anyone would think a book would be a better guide than empathy and compassion.

The problem is that some people seem to want soem kind of outside authority to tell them what is right or wrong. I don't think books written by bronze age goat herders are good guides at all, especially when the books are full of cultural biases which are not at all universal.

It would seem to me that ‘Those’ who want that outside authority are the ones the least able to think for themselves.

@CuddyCruiser My general view isn't that they can't think for themselves, but they are just too lazy to think for themselves.

@snytiger6 I totally agree…..The majority of course absolutely. But there are those with mental issues of course who cannot think for themselves, regardless of faith, race, geographic location. But you are correct, they are just too lazy. But ay, such is what happens with brainwashing / manipulation.

7

Or tell him. To come and see me, and I will share with him my short list of about thirty or forty books which are quite good guides if taken as a whole. (His book did not make the top hundred. ) Also tell him. that I give no credit to anybody who has only read one book, especially if he is waving it in my face.

9

Tell him. If you need god to tell you right from wrong, then you are not a good person, only a bad person on a leash.

7

Most people like rules and structure and order, basically a set of guidelines to help them colour between the lines of their everyday routine because they don't like to think and actively avoid it. Just keep your head down and your nose clean, plus when they give into their baser nature it is comforting to imagine that there is an imaginary friend in the sky (really just in their heads) that will forgive them their trespasses and love them unconditionally as only an imaginary friend can. 😉

7

The amazing thing is that people who claim their morality comes from God are doing the EXACT SAME THING as atheists, they're just choosing to let the writings of people thousands of years ago define their morality.

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