How exactly does that work? If a real God, what would he know, and why would he care, about the good - the good being a human conception? If not real, then an idea, but not necessarily an idea of a divine being, the good being approachable through reason and human spirit.that morality requires God (which it does) — Bartricks
True, people aren't God. But people say that God gave them the laws according to which they act. — Apollodorus
How exactly does that work? If a real God, what would he know, and why would he care, about the good - the good being a human conception? If not real, then an idea, but not necessarily an idea of a divine being, the good being approachable through reason and human spirit. — tim wood
Likewise, for moral norms and values to exist, God needs to exist (why? Because moral norms and values are the prescriptions and values of God). And if moral norms and values do exist, God exists. — Bartricks
Likewise, for moral norms and values to exist, God needs to exist — Bartricks
Human rights were historically introduced as god-given and therefore sacred in both the French Déclaration des droits de l'homme and in the American Bill of rights. You can't do this anymore. You can't say in a secular framework: "Human life is sacred", although it is still said of course, including by secularists. And the reason it is still said, is that we modern secularists miss a sense of the sacred to ground our values. — Olivier5
...moral norms and values are the prescriptions and values of God... — Bartricks
If there is no God, everything is permitted. — Fyodor Doestevsky (Brothers Karamazov)
You are confusing this place with a hate site. Go back to 4chan or something. — Olivier5
God needs to exist (why? Because moral norms and values are the prescriptions and values of God). And if moral norms and values do exist, God exists. — Bartricks
I disagree with the OP. Belief in God is irrelevant to being good, or evil. — Book273
Those that think so have a lower income, less education, tend to the political right and are older than those who do not. — Banno
And this is bad?Belief in god is necessary for being good.
Those that think so have a lower income, less education, tend to the political right and are older than those who do not. — Banno
But then, the end justifies the means and we know that leads to the trampling of human rights. Utilitarianism alone does not suffice. We do need to work toward general welfare, but not at the cost of individual oppression. E.g. the police can't summarily kill an individual without due process, even if his death would make millions of other folks happy.the point seems clear to me that absent any conception of a summum bonum, an ultimate end or good, then the only moral philosophy can be some form of utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number. I suppose you could appeal to something like eudomonia — Wayfarer
So, Marx and Engels:
1. Used Darwinism as "the basis for their class struggle".
2. They believed in a new type of man that "could cope with the new socialist world order".
3. And they believed that Slavic nations had to be eliminated.
All three elements are later found in Nazi ideology. — Apollodorus
I have never met an intelligent buddhist. Indeed, 'buddhist' means 'bullshittist'. So that a buddhist thinks x is not in any way shape or form good evidence that x. — Bartricks
How is it a hindrance? To be intelligent is to be responsive to Reason. And to be good is to behave in a manner, and instantiate traits of character, that Reason approves of. Reason is not going to disapprove of being responsive to her, and the more responsive one is, the more likely one is to be someone she approves of. So intelligence will generally help one to be good, not pose an obstacle to it. It may not be necessary, but it isn't a hindrance. — Bartricks
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