Yes, but he’s not taught that if later in life he has strong reasons to doubt that electrons carry a negative charge he will cause immense grief for his family, risk being disowned, and probably face an eternity in hell. He can feel free to explore his hypothesis without those fears.
You must be living in the Bible belt because that’s the only explanation I can think of wherein I would see such behaviour executed (telling your kids they are going to Hell). Are Fundamentalists the ones doing this? Because you can’t stereotype Christianity for Fundamentalists (who view even Catholics negatively) of this kind.
Honestly, do you really believe this? I think you are basing yourself more on emotion (and to an extent an inaccurate view of history) than reason, for historically, it was the 20th century that contained within it the worst athrocities against humanity (all the centuries before it could not achieve the horrors witnessed in that one century). And if I’m not mistaken you are refering to the Aztecs (genocide), a brutal civilization that killed more than 20 000 or so a year through sacrifice (they also practiced cannibalism). They were wiped out by the way because of disease (more than 80% died this way) not murder. As for slavery, that was condemned by the CC. And what are you refering to when you say “killing of innocents on a massive scale”? I cannot think of anything in the Church’s history (while the West was as you say under God) to which you could be refering to. It’s ironic that you say this though because abortion kills more than 1 000 000 innocents a year in the U.S. alone. There has been up to date 45 000 000 killed in this manner since 1973. Would you consider that death on a massive scale?
This seems like a strange statement for a person to make who does not believe that baptism leaves any permanent changes on the soul.
Does that mean that you believe our concept of Jesus isd not one of a Higher Power?
No one is saying that you are incapable of love and morality. The assertion was that the ability to be this way is part of what it is to be made in the image and likeness of God. It is part of who we are created to be. When you act in accordance with love and morality, you are fulfilling the purpose for which God created you.
Thanks for the humor. Seriously.I can respect and appreciate this. And my priest today spoke on this very issue, so it’s ironic in light of your comments. He’s very anti-war and anti-violence.
Don’t know if this hasn’t already been said or not, if so, my apologies. I’m still reading this thread.
The bible gives you peace in the word of God while giving you the freedom to live your life. God has given you free will.
Yes, I live in the Bible Belt. Yes, it is almost exclusively the Fundamentalists who perform these actions.
Sorry to hear that. There are “fundie” atheists too
You don’t believe me?Yes, I live in the Bible Belt. Yes, it is almost exclusively the Fundamentalists who perform these actions.
Now, how did I know that? Is there a way you can move somewhere else?
Sorry to hear that. There are “fundie” atheists too
If anything, people who know me claim I need to let emotion more into my thinking than the other way round.
It was just a matter of scale. We had effective technology for committing atrocities on a mass scale in the the 20th century. So far in the 21st century however, despite the ever present menace of atheism there have been no atrocities committed on the scales of even several centuries ago.
Aztecs, Maya, Inca. To be honest, I don’t see how Western culture at the time was less brutal. How many witches did Westerners burn? Nobody knows for sure, but estimates of the number of witches killed range from a hundred thousand to millions.
…Many centuries after it was officially sanctified by several Papal Bulls. I do; however, appreciate that the RCC leadership was among the first major Christian denominations to support abolition.
There are Papal Bulls I wrote about earlier in this thread, but the larger point is this: When faith in God was nearly universal in Western culture, it did not stop people from committing horrible atrocities. So the claim that it was a small fraction of Western population rejecting Christianity that led to such and such atrocities is nonsense. These types of events were being practiced for many centuries before atheism was a blip on the radar. That they were larger in scale in the 20th century had more to do with technology than additional malice.
Well, Catholics aren’t exactly practicing what they preach here. Catholics represent 24% of the US population but have 31% of abortions in the US. So this goes back to the point I’m trying to make. Faith in God is apparently not stopping people from doing these things.
*1 Corinthians 13:1-8a and 13 *
Yes, we live in the Bible Belt and like it here. We do have the occasional problem with the generally well meaning but meddling fundamentalist. Still, it’s a nice part of the country and in general the people are very friendly.
Yes, I believe you. Many atheists have taken to calling some atheists 'fundie atheists". They go around bad mouthing everything about religion and religious people indiscriminately. There’s good and bad in just about everything on earth, but some people for whatever reason are very selective in what they internalize.You don’t believe me?
Psalm 13:1 “The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God, They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one.”
Then it should be clear to you that the people who were the cause of these atrocities either did not understand the Will of God, mainly due to the times in which they lived, or their faith was only rhetoric.
Are Catholics acting out their faith? Are they being inundated with temptations that they are pervasively subjected to? Could it be that the moral relativism inherent in our modern times be the cause that has led to a decrease in morality? And is the culture we are surrounded by conducive to christian morality?
And these words of comparison to my Faith were not at all disrespectful?
I don’t reject God. I reject people’s claim of God. This wording is important. Since the idea of God is imbued with perfection, some religious people try to make atheism’s rejecting God instead of people’s claim of God somewhat akin to rejecting love, world peace, etc. I do not reject God. I reject people’s claim of God.
Where is your evidence for it being mostly a Protestant phenomenon? Roman Catholics were hunting witches over a century before the Reformation. There were several Papal Bulls ordering witch inquisitions spanning centuries, and other documents from leading clergy warning of the danger posed by witches. There is evidence that the schism of the Reformation sent both sides hunting witches more than anywhere else in the fuzzy boundaries between Catholic and non Catholic lands.
In other words, there was no requirement for loss of religious belief or moral relativism to lead to such events.
It doesn’t seem like anyone wants the Nazi’s or the Communists on their team. They’re passed around like a hot potato. It’s more subtle than that, but it’s pointless to bicker about whose team they were on. Personally, I just see it as a shift in people’s casus belli. In previous centuries, if you were a power hungry brute, the best way to remain safe while others killed and died for you was to whip up religious xenophobia. Tell them that their enemy was evil in the eyes of God, maybe even throw in a promise of heaven to those who died in combat and you could start one of many crusades.
Moral relativism allows us to improve morals over time. We humans used to think it was perfectly acceptable to wage a war of conquest. A stronger nation would simply set its sights on a weaker one that was minding its own business. After killing and maiming a few tends of thousands or millions, the stronger nation would control or absorb the smaller nation. It was not that long ago that this conduct was not only considered acceptable, but noble and glorious. Today, no nation on earth would claim they are starting a war to control another nation, much less absorb it into their territory. That’s moral relativism.