I think you are just envious that religion spread further and faster than your "other sources of morality", which I notice you haven't bothered to state. ?
When I said "please specify", I was asking what cultures you claim the Ten Commandments were taken from ?
Where are these cultures now ? Christianity has survived them all. Can you explain why that is ?
I think its the "other sources" that have tamed the religious craziness, Over a period of time we have seen gradual progression in the moral values of society through rational secular reasoning, this is some what slowed by the religious though who often don't want to budge, you can see this happening by the resistance to gay marriage, especially in the USA.
There are many highly secular countries that are very nice places to live, Australia is one of them. In fact there is a correlation between places that are highly religious and violent crime and lower education, health care etc.
When I said "please specify", I was asking what cultures you claim the Ten Commandments were taken from ?
Where are these cultures now ? Christianity has survived them all. Can you explain why that is ?
we didn't need a god to tell us that we didn't want to be killed or have our stuff stolen, its pretty common sense, offcourse as civilisations developed, rules against those things popped up every where, humans were living in civilisations and very large social groups for thousands of years before the bible was written.
I believe we are coming to a middle ground. I don't want to live in a highly religious country, nor a totally atheist ( or anti theist if you prefer) society either. Both are examples of extremist positions that are intolerant of opposing views.
Better to have a society that respects other views and allows peaceful coexistence, but as a matter of history we also have to acknowledge the good and bad influences that shaped our society. I hope we can do that with an open mind.
Ah yes, but religion put an external Being above the despots of the time and eroded their power. That is why despots of all sorts despise religion because it is a threat to them. People started following a carpenter from Nazareth rather than Caesar. Religion was an antidote to despotism at the time. We have international laws now, but the concept derived from the common good overriding the abuse of power.
Given the widespread nature of religion and the notion that it springs up in physically separate areas in different guises, this argues that we have a tendency/behavior that lends itself to doing this in one way or another.
Yet apes and chimps from whom we have genetically descended wage war. To the best of my knowledge, they do not do so in the name of religion. The animal kingdom is unbelievably violent.
On the contrary, Religion is a power tool used by despots.
But I think we are past this, I think we are at the point where its ok to say we don't know and still live without fear of that unknown, and focus instead on uncovering the truths of the universe, Because the truth is going to be more useful and more interesting than any story in the religious texts.
,
If you are a proponent of Big Bang, as is the standard belief today, there was a beginning. .
That is the limit to science. Can it answer "Why are we here? What am I supposed to do given I am here?"
Value Collector,
As termed by you, what is a Despot?
Unfortunately, that is the statement of a pure bigot who can't admit there may be some good in a philosophy that has moderated the power of despots over the ages..
Yes , religion can be a tool for control BY despots, but is can also be a moderator to the power OF despots.
If you can't honestly analyse the lessons of history, and look at the evidence both for and against your ingrained prejudices, then there is no point in continuing a debate with a bigot
3, yes but all apollo members were airforce, when you are working with any specialised group in a population you will find things diverge from averages, eg, a very high degree of military members vote liberal, and at the time i served in my regiment Queensland was over represented but you cant draw conclusions that it takes a liberal voting queenslander to do what we do.
3. Fair point. I don't have the stats on the subset. And there is a difference between correlation and causality. Still, I am amazed at it and find the depth of belief was so strong and think, as opposed to know, that it was uncommon.
I think you need to just stop looking at the past with rose coloured glasses, assuming religion is positive.
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