T
Tenofovir
Guest
I would argue that if everyone did take Catholicism or Christianity seriously we would not have war, greed, expression of jealousy, murder, violence, rape, etc. If people did not have sex outside of marriage we would not have syphilis, HIV/AIDS, unwanted children, abortions, most ectopic pregnancies, pelvic inflammatory disease, many causes of infertility, cervical cancer in women, ano-rectal cancer in gay men, etc. Life would objectively be much better. I therefore don’t think Christian/Catholic religion is arbitrary. Diseases such as HPV cervical cancer would never have evolved if people had one sex partner their entire lives, neither would HIV etc. I gather however that sexual pleasure is a driver and people prioritise their own temporary release of endorphins over well being of others. We know how compassionate child sex abusers are.
But sometimes we do not attach much value to our lives. Some people find their ideology is more important then their life. Many Bolsheviks, Nazis, Fascists, imperialist Japanese, Maoists, nationalists, liberals, etc laid their lives and expected others to lay their lives in the name of ideology. Yet other people suffer from low self esteem, depression, personality disorder, autism etc and do not relate well to others or relate well to the value of their own lives. We also find that culture has strong effects too - take for example the paranoia which occurs in your country Australia from fundamentalist Christian and atheists to some Muslims and contrast that to a place like South Africa where Muslims and Christians basically get on well with each other. It seems our Muslims here are never offended by Churches.
As previously metioned, empathy is often overruled or suppressed. Do you think the Nazis who killed Jews were psychopathic killers without empathy? Did the Communists who executed entire families lack empathy? Nope. These were people who showed deep empathy to their own kind but did what was required of them when necessary.
I love your selectivity. More people have been killed in secular crimes for secular utopian or even logically reasonable causes then killed by a few Jihadists. In fact if we are to go by empirical data it is the secular power (which is rising as religious influence dwindles and moral relativism) which is most dangerous and will lead likely to more suffering in the future. Most Muslims actually don’t blow themselves up, take my word for it. If they did, with their numbers, we’d see many more underpants bombers and 911’s.
Even if you look at road accident deaths in your country. More people die in accidents or suffer from consequences of negligence and malice (eg drunk driving) than Islamic red herrings.
In order to maintain societal stability at a time where people did not know how to do it better and were themselves not often very Christian in their behaviour. But hey, they had empathy. Also not all witches were burned because of witchcraft and not all witchcraft was innocent. In Africa witches make medication called muti from bodies of children - the children must be killed first. Obviously there can be other reasons why witches are disliked. Albino children are also often targeted by witchdoctors. I would assume, not being racist, that white European witches may have had similar behaviours and may have also preached superstitions which may have been destabilising.
They work. They’re also reasoned out by thousands of years of philosophy - guys like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, onto guys like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas onto guys like Leibniz, Kant, Kolakowski, etc., numerous Vatican councils, thousands of academics, etc. Sometimes work of secular philosophers is also incorporated.
In fact they tend sometimes not to work because they’re not taken seriously enough by people in their personal lives, who choose to follow secular mainstream pop morality rather - consequentionalism.
Not in my religious family and I don’t know a single religious person who is persecutory towards others. In fact I find myself more open minded and tolerant than bigots like Dawkins. It seems our empirical data is at odds. I find most religious people to be more friendly, respectful and kind than most atheists, I meet. For one, I realise that I don’t have all the answers but at least the general direction Christianity takes is superior to everything else.
And this depends on the metaphysics you choose.
I presume you are satisfied with the level of morality in the world. There is no suffering and everyone is happy and equally free. Things are great and work well. The guy who walked past you in the street, the one you did not bludgeon because bludgeoning him would make you a target for bludgeoning is perfectly happy and doesn’t need any help. We can put religion away because since the Enlightenment we have solved all problems and everyone is nice to everyone else.
…maybe you should enlighten us with your knowledge.
. I 'll try again.
? That it’s NOT self-evident to (at least some) non-believers that Catholicism is an “objectively better” way to live your life? some people on this thread seemed to think it was…
. I don’t know about you but I am only rational to the extent that reason serves my preferred ends.