"sdr" <sdrodrian@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1184620881.225376.117200@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> What Atheists Can't Answer
> By Michael Gerson Friday, July 13, 2007;
> Page A17 Washington Post
>
> " Human nature, in other circumstances, is also
> clearly constructed for cruel exploitation,
> uncontrollable rage, icy selfishness and a range of
> other less desirable traits.
>
> So the dilemma is this: How do we choose between
> good and bad instincts? Theism, for several
> millennia, has given one answer: We should
> cultivate the better angels of our nature because
> the God we love and respect requires it. While many
> of us fall tragically short, the ideal remains.
>
> Atheism provides no answer to this dilemma. It
> cannot reply: "Obey your evolutionary instincts"
> because those instincts are conflicted. "Respect
> your brain chemistry" or "follow your mental
> wiring" don't seem very compelling either. It would
> be perfectly rational for someone to respond: "To
> hell with my wiring and your socialization, I'm
> going to do whatever I please." "
>
> Consider, Mr. Gerson:
>
> If it were the case that religion is our instructor,
> then there would be no prisons. There are, and
> consider, further, that the most religious (at least
> professing to be) group in this country is the two
> million criminals in our prisons. 'Nouf said.
>
> But if you still think that morality/ethics is in any
> way/shape/form associated with religious belief, then
> but think about the depravity of priests and preachers
> --who have been caught. Shouldn't that, at least, be
> enough to remove any convictions you might have had
> about religious instruction "bettering" our "naturally
> evil nature."
>
> Further: People who think they should be good BECAUSE
> their God requires it are only setting themselves up
> for the most evil preacher's definition of The Good.
> Time and time again we have seen preachers "inform"
> their congregations that God wants them to fight this
> or that war (Confederate preachers urged their
> congregations to kill as many Yankees as possible), or
> to butcher and plunder this or that people (in the
> best of Islamic traditions, Turkish preachers told
> their congregations that murdering Armenians for their
> possessions (and raping their women and children
> before slaughtering them) was what God expected of
> them... and because acknowledging this monstrous truth
> about Islam before the whole world is so impossible,
> the Turks to this day refuse to acknowledge that the
> Armenian/Muslim genocide even ever took place).
>
> But I don't have to prove to any parent that we are
> ALL born with unfettered instincts--to be "bettered"
> by the (sometimes even the most casual & offhand)
> instructions of our parents and societies: Every child
> KNOWS the difference between good and evil (deeds) by
> the time he/she is four or five. And if they don't,
> then that is a certain sign that such children live in
> a warped and perverted society or family.
>
> The four-year-old who does "evil" may not yet know how
> to "get away with it," but he certainly knows he had
> better not get caught doing it.
>
> Therefore, if there be man or woman on this earth who
> still does not know the difference between Good and
> Evil... let them inquire of any (as-yet religiously-
> uninstructed) four-year-old: for he will surely know,
> and tell them.
>
> S D Rodrian
> http://poems.sdrodrian.com
> http://physics.sdrodrian.com
> http://mp3s.sdrodrian.com
>
> All religions are local.
> Only science is universal.
>
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