I still don't understand the distinction you're looking for. You're obviously not seriously suggesting that there aren't any deontologists, that no one is a utilitarian... That would be absurd. So what is the distinction you're trying to make between people who have read, say, Kant, and try to follow his method, and people who have read, say, the Bible, and try to follow its methods? — Isaac
Without rules on marriage and divorce, a system of morality is incomplete, say, even crippled. — alcontali
he's asking for a philosophical ethics text that has had anywhere near the cultural impact on ethics--the ubiquity, pervasiveness, etc. of the Bible or Quran. — Terrapin Station
What are the deontologist rules on marriage and divorce? Do you know of anybody who has entered into a deontologist marriage? Without rules on marriage and divorce, a system of morality is incomplete, say, even crippled. — alcontali
I know they can be frightening to the unititiated, but women are alright once you get to know them...promise, most people really don't need special rules for dealing with them any more. — Isaac
. It isn't really the god that does it, it's the kind of thinking that allows god in in the first place. — fdrake
That's true, but still...some people need special rules for dealing with almost anything! :gasp: — Janus
Zeus or Quetzalcoatl — VagabondSpectre
Where is the "I'm an atheist, and it is of no consequence in the rest of my philosophy" option? — VagabondSpectre
Where is the "I'm an atheist, and it is of no consequence in the rest of my philosophy" option? — VagabondSpectre
There is quite a bit of evidence that affluence is a key factor in people opting to have fewer -- far fewer -- children. The theory is that with high survival rates among their children, redundant children are not necessary -- the ones they have will survive. — Bitter Crank
Further, affluent people don't have to worry about not having children to care for them when they are old and feeble. Affluent people can hire poor people to that sort of work at affordable prices. — Bitter Crank
I think one can make an argument (I don't have any stats for it) that it is affluence that leads to atheism. — Bitter Crank
Actually I was wondering which century you were living in. Seems to be something of a perception-distorting time warp going on here. — Bitter Crank
The reason why the urban poor fail to reproduce, is not because of the survival rate of children. It is because they cannot keep their families together for long enough. — alcontali
Once a woman has a child with one man, it becomes harder for her to find another man to commit to funding a second one. — alcontali
Having a lot of children requires the same nuclear family staying together for all that time. That just does not seem to happen much outside the context of religious communities. — alcontali
the government will try to ask them to give up resources to pay to retired, middle-class atheists. — alcontali
You will also fail to unlearn the deceptive and manipulative views that you were indoctrinated with from a young age. — alcontali
The government will not merely TRY to make you give up resources for aged atheists, they will be successful in making you pay for the luxurious assisted living and skilled care homes we shall require. — Bitter Crank
How is it that you and you alone managed to overcome the deception and manipulation that was visited upon you, and that nobody else in the world could overcome? — Bitter Crank
And you weren't? Come now... How is it that you and you alone managed to overcome the deception and manipulation that was visited upon you, and that nobody else in the world could overcome? — Bitter Crank
Because... God did it.
It's really much easier this theist philosophy. — Isaac
if you really did come to believe, I think it would provoke enormous questions; it might cause one to question many things that one previously assumed. So the idea that it’s an ‘end to questioning’ can only really be entertained on the basis of the assumption that it really doesn’t mean anything in the first place. — Wayfarer
Definitely, but I've always had the impression that the complexity was a factor of smart people who had been indoctrinated with religious beliefs as a kid--so that they couldn't exactly just drop the beliefs on a emotional level--realizing that they need to try to figure out some way to make something that's pretty obviously ridiculous seem not-so-ridiculous instead. That's why you get ideas like, "Yeah, it's not a big boogie man in the sky, it's an 'organizing force'" and so on. — Terrapin Station
That is a popular internet meme, supposed to convey the idea that ‘belief in God is an end to all questioning’. However if you really did come to believe, I think it would provoke enormous questions; it might cause one to question many things that one previously assumed. So the idea that it’s an ‘end to questioning’ can only really be entertained on the basis of the assumption that it really doesn’t mean anything in the first place. — Wayfarer
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