Megatron

On that subject (sorry I'm continuing a hijack), I believe religion should be addressed in school, but absolutely not preached.

I think it should be regarded as the mythology it is, and taught to children the same way the ancient Roman and Egyptian gods are.

But that probably won't happen until people wake up and realize that it is mythology. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Malaclypse the Younger

You are absolutely correct and I agree completely. Thanks for the clarification.

However, it is my personal opinion that the detailed study of religion is not particularly useful for elementary and secondary education.

[ March 22, 2002: Message edited by: Malaclypse the Younger ]</p>

luvluv

Hey sorry folks if I sounded irate or something in that post. It was an honest question. My computer at my home has a busted modem, so I usually post from a friends house. That's why there are often long delays between my posts. I'm not a hit and run guy.

I hear and understand what a lot of you guys are saying. To me, though, it seems more wrong (there's that word again) to use coercion to stop somebody from acting in a certain way if you can't necessarily say he is wrong. It seems to me a bit capricious to coerce somebody, whether violently or otherwise, just because you disagree with him. I just find it hard to see how some of you can get so upset if there is no objective standard of value.

To be honest, I can't figure you folks out. If I didn't believe in God, if I really thought this life was all there is, I'd basically live on the beach. I wouldn't waste a single second trying to convince somebody of anything. To be honest, and this is no offense to you folks because you are awfully nice, but most of the time I kind of dread posting over here because while I respect your point of view I find it personally deppressing. If I didn't believe I was possibly doing something important by engaging with you, I'd never do it. To be honest, there are days when I just don't want to do it and I feel God compels me to come over here and post anyway. If I thought that this life was all there was, I'd never come anywhere near a computer. But hey, one guy's computer is another guy's beach... so who's to say.

Kachana

Imagine that you don't believe in God, many of your emotions would still be the same, for instance, you would still love your (perhaps hypothetical) children. Now imagine that someone gained immense enjoyment from sexually abusing children and expressed an interest in your children to you. Would you still be so cavalier with your trips to the beach?

My guess is that you'd a) try to convince them that their actions are in contradiction with other beliefs and emotions they hold, and b) take coercive action to stop your children being abused. That is the very basic nature of discussion between moral subjectivists here.

As long as you understand that for many of us here, our views are quite the opposite of depressing.

Even if it could convince someone not to sexually abuse your kid, whose life on this Earth is all he has?

Jayhawker Soule

How do you justify the absurd cruelty of your sponsor?

luvluv

Yeah, but, are you really under the impression that there are child abusers on the infidel board? And do you really spend most of your time over here trying to convert child-molestors?

At any rate, I don't have children, and again, if I didn't believe in a God I don't know that I'd want to spend my time raising any. I'd just try to Carpe me some Diem while I was still around. I guess the answer is we are different people, and you guys may get the enjoyment out of being on the net that I would get out of going dancing or whatever. I have just always felt that the only advantage of atheism is that it gives you the ultimate justification to be on the constant look out for a party. At least that's how I would be. If this is all there is, it seems insane to be otherwise.

luvluv

"How do you justify the absurd cruelty of your sponsor?"

Umm... he lets me search for high school basketball recruits while I'm on the net, so we call it even...

[ March 22, 2002: Message edited by: luvluv ]</p>

99Percent

luvluv: I feel God compels me...

You feel or you know or you believe God compels you?

I find it ironic that you stand for religious objective morals, yet your relationship with this moral authority stands on feelings...

luvluv

"You feel or you know or you believe God compels you?"

I've been asked this before, it's kind of like explaining being in love to a person who has never been in love before. You can't really explain it in a meaningful way to somebody who hasn't experienced it. I could not definitely classify it as a feeling or a knowing or a belief. It's kind of all three. It's something nobody can explain yet it's an experience that almost all the Christians I know share... that sense of God egging them on... of not letting them easily walk away from something they'd rather walk away from.

I can't explain it in any more quantifiable a way then I could explain romantic love, but like romantic love, I know it's real, and I know it when I feel it.

Viti

Well, I enjoy being here, later tonite we are going to a blue's club, we are planning our vaction to the UK, I am "shabby chicing" a piece of furniture, tomorrow I plan to go to the flea market and a few antique shops, I make bath products, lip balm and handbags using vintage material, on Monday I am having the last medical test before donating a kidney to a friend , I also work full time running customer service for a telecommunications company.

Do you think that just because we spend time here we do NOTHING else ever? I am living my one and only life to the fullest extent I can. I don't know what else I could fit in or afford