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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:35 pm
by Penelope
Chris quote:
I don't understand how you or anyone can not blame religion for the acts of the Taliban, however, so I'm not sure how to respond at this point. They are following the instructions of their holy book and to me this means their religion is to blame. Well, their stupidity in accepting that religion is to blame.
No, Chris, they are not following the instructions of their holy book. Just as the Christians....pick out the the convenient instructions from their holy book... when and where it suits them. The Bible is full of contradictions anyway.

I am thinking of the Simon and Garfunkel song....'I man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest...'

I still insist that it is about the Ego....about 'power'.....

But...yes...you are right....we can't let them just get on with it......because they are hiding behind.....what they call their religion.

And I bloody well understand what you hold against this kind of religiousity...

There is an absolute need for an atheistic viewpoint.....but I also think that there is a need to accept a balancing point of view......that is why I want to be here......putting in my feeble input.......

When the time comes that humans want to overthrow what is, after all, just the human interpretation of religion......mixed up with power, and ego, and sentiment and false emotion.....then.....just maybe.....religion will be seen as the balancing of our rationality.......as an essential element for a balanced psyche. That's what it is to me anyway.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:05 pm
by giselle
Simon and Garfunkel song....'a man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest...
thanks penelope, I think there is great wisdom in the lyrics of popular music. like it or not, we live subjective (relativistic) lives that we cannot escape .. we were born this way and we will die this way, unless of course, some freaky evolutionary event occurs. and I don't think anyone was arguing for tolerance of violence or atrocity in the name of religion or culture.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:23 pm
by Chris OConnor
No, Chris, they are not following the instructions of their holy book.
Yes, Penelope, they most certainly are following the instructions of their holy book. You can pretend that it's all one big misinterpretation, but if you've read the Quran you wouldn't make such a statement. It is Christians that ignore the nasty verses and pretend as if they don't exist. And in most cases Christians haven't even read their own Bible. MOST Christians I talk to don't know a thing about the Bible. So how can they be expected to comment intelligently on the Quran? They can't. Just like with their own faith they are ignorant of other peoples faiths. They parrot back little sentences they've hear uttered on TV or by their religious leaders.

I strongly suggest people read both the Bible and the Quran because they are horrendously evil. Please, explain to me what I am reading wrong about these verses...

King James Bible

Exodus 12:29

29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

Numbers 11:33

33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.

Exodus 32:27-29

27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

Numbers 15:32-36

32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.

34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.

35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

So we're to ignore the above verses just because elsewhere in the Bible it says some warm and fuzzy stuff? Please. I'm too intelligent for that. I think you are too.

Sure, most of the nastiness is in the Old Testament, but isn't it the same God? Sure it is. So I'm not going to turn a blind eye towards God endorsing killing your own sons and daughters, keeping and beating slaves, or murdering those that work on the Sabbath.

I am not going to copy and paste the evil in the Quran because it won't be read or considered. It will be rejected as nonsense and misinterpretation no matter how well I cite the verses.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:54 pm
by Robert Tulip
Chris OConnor wrote:First of all I don't think the tendency to not kill each other as often is a matter of spiritual evolution, and I venture to say Christopher Hitchens would agree with me. Religion poisons everything, as the author repeats over and over, and some of us consider even the use of the term "spirituality" to be an injection of irrationality into the mix unnecessarily. Spirituality, in my opinion, is a completely meaningless term, provided that "spirits" don't exist, and this is where Hitchens is going with his thesis. There is no reason to believe spirits exist, spirituality matters, or that religion does anything other than poison humanity. Some of you will argue about the term spirituality as it has become rather cool to think of ourselves as spiritual even when not religious. I personally don't use the word because it embarrasses me to even remotely be associated with religion or religious beliefs.
Hi Chris, this is a great post regarding the dangers of false belief. However, it seems to me that you (and Hitchens) invalidly infer from such arguments that true belief is impossible. Generally, religious practice is primarily a validation of custom, and is only partly informed by wisdom literature. You cannot debunk the wisdom literature by showing the degeneracy of the custom. The point of the wisdom literature, and this holds strongly for the kernel of the Bible, is that popular religion is degenerate and needs to evolve to understand a higher truth. For example the Old Testament prophet Amos condemned religious sacrifice and said true religion was primarily about achieving economic justice. We don’t need to postulate an imaginary supernatural entity to say that Amos was inspired by a spirit of love. Equally, the Gospel Sermon on the Mount focuses on mercy as a divine quality. These texts are about defining a goal for human evolution.
"There is evidence that we are progressing spiritually" is meaningless to me. Do you mean that there is evidence that our belief in imaginary things is causing an effect? Ok, I'll give you this. But I'd say the effect caused is far more dangerous, negative and deadly than helpful or positive. You and I both happen to live in countries where religion isn't regularly leading to the slaughter of innocents. But this is not the norm in the world and you should not forget it.
The opposition to capital punishment is not due to “belief in imaginary things” but to belief in the inherent dignity of the human individual. This concept of ‘dignity’ might be seen as imaginary in some quarters, but many would argue it has a strong empirical basis. Europe is more spiritually evolved than Pakistan precisely because of Europe’s greater respect for human rights. The theory of rights has a deeply spiritual origin, including from the Ten Commandments which Hitchens mocks so derisively. A distinction needs to be drawn here between true and false spirituality, with the former supporting evolution towards a good and enlightened world and the latter presenting a twisted evil path based on mass delusion. You can’t use the existence of spiritual delusion to infer that spiritual enlightenment is impossible.
Who is "we?" Who attempts to reach consensus? Does the Taliban or Al Queda seek consensus? Or do they slaughter the opposition? Oh, you mean people in the civilized world, right? Well, if this is the case isn't it time for the civilized world to unite and wipe out the Taliban and Al Queda?
Chris, the question here is one of priorities and strategy. Yes, the civilized world should unite to wipe out the Taliban and Al Queda, but in a place like Afghanistan where false belief is so deeply entrenched military action is rather like punching a bucket of water, which goes back to its previous state as soon as your fist is out. Military action can contain extremism, but to exterminate it requires action on winning hearts and minds. This is slow and difficult, and requires consensus on strategy. Economic development is a major starting point, as religious delusion only prospers where people haven’t got better things to do. Your atheist argument that spirituality is meaningless has strong shock value as an enlightened perspective and a way to base policies on evidence, but it is so far from where the mass of the population are now that it does not really help in practical reform. If we want spiritual evolution from a current view that terrorism and cruelty are okay towards a view that they are not okay, then people need to be presented with arguments which provide a path of reform from their current situation. For example, it is okay to believe in Allah or God as a supreme being as long as we work through in a logical way how this belief is compatible with scientific knowledge.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:11 pm
by Penelope
Chris:

I have read the Bible. I do know a lot of what it says......I don't know the Koran....because that is derived from Judaic scripture, just like the Bible, and, frankly, I can't be bothered. Now why can't I be bothered?

Because, it is not right to uphold a Book, and call it holy. And blindly do whatever it says....... But since the Bible is such an influencial book, and I am grateful to those people in the past, like Myles Coverdale, who in 1534, wrote out the whole Bible in English, by hand. So that we could read it....

I have seen the actual book in the British Library.......and being an emotional female.....was extraordinarily moved by the sight of it.

Because, in those days, most people couldn't read, they took their knowledge from the clergy....they went to Church and 'heard' the teachings. They couldn't read for themselves what it 'really' said.

Now, we can, and when we rebel against it.....and the clergy who have perpetuated the myths......we think that we are rebelling against God and religion. But religion is not to be had from a book, however holy people 'say' it is. Or whatever fancy 'frocks' the clergy wear. That man, whose name is not to be mentioned on here, told us that the Kingdom of Heaven was within us, not in a book.

So, here I am picking out bits.......that some man said, 2000 years ago and that have echoed through the ages. And just ring true......

Of course I am influenced by the Bible.....It has informed a lot of my thinking as I have gone through my life. It is just an collection of writings bound together somewhat arbitrarily......and some of it attributes horrible things to what they call God. Some of it, contains wisdom but it depends where you look. But it is not holy...it is not God....it is just a book, or rather a collection of books.

It is Judaic teaching, history, and poetry.......and myths. Taking a birds eye view....I have become very suspicious of Jewish teachings......Jewish teaching is the basis of Christianity and Islam.....all three are from the same base and all three are unfortunately influencial in current major world events.

But just as I don't blame or dislike the Jews.....neither will I blame 'religion' for all the troubles in the world. Religion is not a book, or a set of rules.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:16 pm
by realiz
Chris:
So you're arguing that nobody is really "bad" or "evil" or deserves to be stopped.
No, but I know that I am not in a position to judge and it is always easy to look at another culture, pick out the worst practices and decide they need to be wiped out. I think we could find similar arguments about the native people of america (savages), those pillaging vikings, and the christians...someone really should have wiped them out long ago.

But who are the 'we' to make these decisions? And isn't this one of the things the Taliban believe, that they should be wiping us out? And how do we stop an entire culture? Kill them all? Killing only the leaders will not work and only create more hatred.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:44 pm
by DWill
Chris OConnor wrote: First of all I don't think the tendency to not kill each other as often is a matter of spiritual evolution, and I venture to say Christopher Hitchens would agree with me. Religion poisons everything, as the author repeats over and over, and some of us consider even the use of the term "spirituality" to be an injection of irrationality into the mix unnecessarily. Spirituality, in my opinion, is a completely meaningless term, provided that "spirits" don't exist, and this is where Hitchens is going with his thesis. There is no reason to believe spirits exist, spirituality matters, or that religion does anything other than poison humanity. Some of you will argue about the term spirituality as it has become rather cool to think of ourselves as spiritual even when not religious. I personally don't use the word because it embarrasses me to even remotely be associated with religion or religious beliefs.
We've gotten pretty far from the subject of my original question, which was about physical evolution. But no matter. I agree with Chris that Hitchens wouldn't want to be talking about our spirtiual evolution. But it's not because he has anything in particlular against the word spiritual. It's just a word, detached from its root by now, and is fairly meaningless because you never know how anyone means it. I personally accept honesty and compassion, for example, as spiritual values, perhaps the most important of all. "Ethical" would be a good substitute for spiritual as well.

Hitchens has a not very high opinion of either human rationality or our so-called spirituality. Based on evidence, I think he is right to say that we are a mess. He does want us to make the most of our meager rationality, though, which is his main point of conflict with religion. Chris, I don't know if you had a chance to read my posts on early chapters of this book. It's quite clear to me that Hitchens does NOT tar all religion with the same brush. The religion that poisons everything is NOT every single thing to which that word is attached. His particular examples throughout make it that abundantly clear that he is speaking of a "religious" god as being the source of trouble. Modern variations of god, which tend towards a "nebulous humanism," do not concern him. He sees them as irrevelant and optional, but as non-threatening. This is a man who really has stayed up late talking with religious friends, and that experience has given him more perspective than some atheists who recoil in horror at the mere mention of religion, are able to achieve.

When the discussion on this book gets going again, I hope we'll be able to see more examples that show Hitchens is considerably less extreme about religion than his title and chapter titles might indicate. In other words, I commend him for fairness.

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:04 pm
by Chris OConnor
No, but I know that I am not in a position to judge...
Then who is to judge? Aren't we all constantly making judgment calls? When you see a bully beating up a weak child don't you judge?

I posit that judging is what ethical people and critical thinkers do day in and day out and throughout every waking moment of their lives. I judge each and every one of you by the words you type. And I hope you judge me for what you see me posting. There is nothing wrong with observing things, thinking about those things, and then passing some sort of judgment.

When genocide is happening anywhere at anytime people need to not be afraid to judge and then after careful thought act on their judgments. Oh, I get your point. We have to be careful about who and what we judge because if we judge others we are subjecting ourselves to their judgment. (Matthew 7:1)

So what do we do then? Sit back and allow bullies and tyrants to exploit and abuse and torture and kill and oppress....all because we don't want to judge?

Nah, I say we employ every ounce of reason, compassion and empathy we can muster, but we need to act. We need to defend the weak and helpless and even the not so weak and helpless. Law and order and civilization are the fruits of thousands of years of cultural evolution and I'm not much interested in living in a society that is afraid to pass judgment and take action when needed.

Will we sometimes make mistakes? Sure, just like you run the risk of getting shot when you run to the rescue of the old lady getting mugged. But I'll damn sure not sit still and watch her get hurt just because I'm not a direct party to the affair and I don't want to pass judgment on the mugger. I trust my judgment, but admit I can and do make errors in judgment. But there is no greater mistake than not taking action and sitting back passively when injustice is happening nearby.

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:50 pm
by Grim
Here you go:



Your welcome!!

:book:

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:06 am
by johnson1010
Surely evolution is still at work in the human race.

Each child is a new variant in the species. Evolution in each generation. The point in question may be are we trending toward a new form, or new ability?

For instance, you mights say that evolution is working on individuals who are more attentive, or with faster reflexes by way of auto accidents. This effect is very small though.

We would need a real binary test to acheive swift evolutional change i think. Like, if your reactions are slow you die in car accidents, (every time), and if they are fast you survive. Then i think the progress to faster reflexes would become more evident.

As it is humanity is spread so far across teh globe that there is more a gradient of lifestyles and factors to work on our genetics that it will be difficult to see real startling change.

If you could get a population seperated from the rest and study them over generations you would see differences emerge there that vary from the general population. The question remains, what might those changes be?

Perhaps with the overall upgrade of social welfare we have undergone we might see evolution not so much in traits that increase our ability to procreate, but rather, what changes are being allowed to take place because the normal culling is no longer functioning?