spacejunkie

Joy and misery define each other. Without joy there is no way to gage misery and vis versa.

Truth and ignorance are mutually exclusive. I think?

EricK

The key question is what does loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength and all your mind entail?

Seeker630

I don't think there is anything morally wrong in believing anything you like. It's when they start acting on those beliefs that the trouble starts.

Joe Bloe

Then there's the argument that the atomic bomb prevented the millions of deaths of Japanese, American, Korean, Chinese, etc soldiers and civilians that would have occurred without the bomb. (How exactly the bombs could otherwise have been used [e.g. as a demonstration/warning, against military targets, whatever] is another question.)

And the existence of nuclear weapons in the Cold War likely prevented an otherwise probable hot war between two huge and well armed antagonists.

On the other hand, nuclear weapons could still be the death of us all in the future.

I think the jury is still out on that one.

Joe Bloe

Depending on what that might entail (e.g. does it, as it has with some people and their understanding of God and what he wants from us, conflict with the part about loving neighbors), I don't see anything necessarily morally wrong with that, but I also value accurate knowledge and teaching of facts. If there isn't a god in the first place, or no good reason to think that there is a god we can have any verifiably reliable knowledge of, I think it is better to say so and admit it.

I certainly don't see anything wrong with that. But then there are good secular (i.e. this-worldly) reasons for having and promoting the value of loving your neighbors.

Joe Bloe

If I may answer:

Accurate knowledge of truth is important for being able to achieve joy. You can stumble across joy accidentally or haphazardly, or find joy in something that isn't real and thus might easily escape you, or you can know how the world really works and manage more regularly and securely to achieve joy. So even if you place joy above truth as your primary concern, truth is important as a means to joy.

arkirk

Joy. I like that word and think we should have as much of it as possible. I think that is what happens when you are communicating and existing in a broader context than the boundaries of your braincase. Loving is a good thing too. Religion, with its many constraints on love (you can love either God or mammon). Well, if that's the choice, give me a good sized portion of that mammon if you please!

capsaicin67

My motto: superstition is an unavoidable human rights issue.

Hrvoje Butkovic

I don’t think it makes any difference whether the person in question is an atheist or not. None of us can lay a reasonable claim to an accurate belief system. It makes more sense to me to dissuade other people from their beliefs because they have resulted in undesirable consequences than because they are inaccurate. If the Christian in question is able to base her behaviour on love and avoid the many pitfalls of the Christian doctrine, then I think she should be encouraged to continue on the same path.

philian

If someone were basically a decent person, but believed in the teachings of Hitler, should we really try to dissuade that person from having those beliefs? Should we prevent them from teaching those ideas to their children? After all, if it works for them, and they find joy, and aren't hurting anyone, what's the problem.

If some believed that they can grow jelly beans in their back yard, should we try to dissuade them from that belief? If this belief brings them joy, shouldn't we let them have that joy?