Re: Smoke two...

"Alex W." <ingilt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:67a2ugF2lu7koU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:


By tying the nature and very existence to a legitimising deity, we
lose the ability to consider them on their own merits. Instead of
asking "is this right" we ask "what does God want us to do" -- even
though the two are only rarely synonymous, or even clear. Worse
still, they open the door for the differently faithful to deny those
very rights: "You must be wrong in embracing those rights because you
claim them under authority from a false God".

You have the same problem, only worse, if you try to "consider them
on their own merits." Who gets to decide what is "meritous"?
Hitler sincerely believed that countries _should_ go to war
in order to weed out the inferior countries. In the end, he
believed that Germany deserved to be destroyed because it had
proved itself too weak in the "great struggle". Therefore
he refused to capitulate, even when the Russians were 100
yards away. He judged "meritous" by this notion of "ueber-
Darwinism". And, without a higher authority, what argument
can you advance against him?

For the "overall good" of society, we execute or imprison
criminals. But that assumes that "good" means something.
Some might put forth that it would be "good" for individuals
to learn to deal with criminals themselves. It would make
them stronger. And those who didn't survive, well, it
improves the gene pool, so that's "good" too.

We can argue about which God decides what's good, or we
can argue about which megalomaniac decides what's good.
At least the popular gods have been tried and true.

B.

--
Cheerfully resisting change since 1959.
.

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