05-28-2022, 11:18 PM
(05-28-2022, 11:14 PM)Ninurta Wrote:(05-28-2022, 10:58 PM)DuckforcoveR Wrote:(05-28-2022, 10:39 PM)Ninurta Wrote: Like any rules, the Ten Commandments only work when people apply them. So then, if they are an "utter failure", one only need look into a mirror rather than at the rules which are not being employed.I should have clarified my history comment, it was religious history. Not history in general.
If kids are not "indoctrinated" with history, they are doomed to repeat it. That has been well established for generations now, and yet we still learn nothing from that simple observation.
Religion does not provide a moral compass, it provides the anchor point, the orientation for that moral compass. Without an anchor point, that moral compass can point in any direction. So, you are correct, you don't need a god to have a moral compass, you only need one to figure out what that compass is pointing TO, which direction your morals lie in. Without it, everyone's moral compass points in any random direction, differing from individual to individual.
In that case, there is then no objective "right" or "wrong", anything goes as that individual sees fit - it's "moral" to him, as that is the direction his moral compass is pointing.
That can make even slaughtering a room full of school kids a "moral" act, to that individual. And, with no objective right or wrong, no one can contest his "morality".
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And while I disagree with the anchor comment, I respect anyone's opinion that needs a God or doctrine to provide said anchor. I just personally don't think it's needed, and think it's done more harm throughout history than we like to admit.
Religious history is still history, and as such, it still has something to teach. If it is not "history", then it is fable or mythology, and there again religious fables and myths from all cultures are still taught in schools with lessons to impart, fable or not. You can still take course in, for example, greek Mythology, and those myths have lessons to be learned.
I could concede that a deity is not required to provide that anchor if you could inform me what IS required to provide it. SOMETHING has to anchor it to provide a common reference point and prevent random moral directions at odds with one another, so what do you think that something would be in the absence of religion?
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I guess here's a good example: do unto others...
Is it religious? I mean, it's written in every book for every religion correct? Yet, nothing to do with God. Nothing to do with a diety, and it doesn't require a God to make sense and be put into practice daily. Sure, I learned about it in Sunday School, but I am positive God as preached doesn't exist (my opinion) and yet I still live by that.
The history versus religious history is just a continuation of me not clarifying what I meant. I would prefer my kids learn about the horrible things committed in the name of (insert gods name here). They need to so they can see how horrible it has been for our species. Do unto others. It's not complicated, not hard, and most certainly not religious.