Originally posted by mr_man:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Blazing_Firebird:
Though you may say that the less religion you have, the less morals you have, I find this to be completely untrue.
I am a proud liberal, and always will be. I vote split ticket, but my life viwes are purely democratic and liberal.
I am not religious. I believe there is something, but I do not believe in the politics of religion that society has resorted to these days. Religion is just as much politics as government is, and it's sad. I do not follow organized religion, because I don't like the way the majority of the operate.
But because I am not religious (actively), does not mean I do not have morals. I have higher morals than most church-goers in my area, I'd say.
And in addition, you can be un-religious (is that a word, lol), and have morals, because there are certain societal norms and mores (sociology class paid off) that govern society, and there is an absense of religion in many of those.
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Blazing_Firebird:
Though you may say that the less religion you have, the less morals you have, I find this to be completely untrue.
I am a proud liberal, and always will be. I vote split ticket, but my life viwes are purely democratic and liberal.
I am not religious. I believe there is something, but I do not believe in the politics of religion that society has resorted to these days. Religion is just as much politics as government is, and it's sad. I do not follow organized religion, because I don't like the way the majority of the operate.
But because I am not religious (actively), does not mean I do not have morals. I have higher morals than most church-goers in my area, I'd say.
And in addition, you can be un-religious (is that a word, lol), and have morals, because there are certain societal norms and mores (sociology class paid off) that govern society, and there is an absense of religion in many of those.
Again, I know that you can have morals without religion, but those people are the exception not the rule. Also I'm not implying necassarilly no morals, but less. </font>[/QUOTE]I disagree. America has a pretty dysfunctional culture, which stems from it's lack of a background other than the medly of cultures it was created from. This, not the lack of religion, is the problem we're facing. Morality has always come from within the culture, not the various religions that govern it. Or, look at the Taliban. Would you say that was an oppressive sect of Islam? Well, they were able to put force behind their beliefs because of their position on top of the government. No truly moral religion would WANT to be given power, because power corrupts.
Let's look into this even deeper: Where did Christianity get its morals? Not God... The whole religious aspect of it is manmade, spirituality is the only real link between people and God (playing devil's advocate, plus i used to be a christian). So, you say it's against the bible to commit adultery, murder, or steal. Well and good, but for it to be against what is written in the bible, it had to first be against the culture of the men who wrote it.
Another point I'd like to make is that the Catholic Church, during it's dark age powergrab, pretty much suffocated all learning and progress. As the Church's power increased, the need for things like crusades and spanish inquisitions did too, but then, when people finally forgot the afterlife, an age of learning occurred: The Renaissance. The point is this: any time you have a religion in charge, they tend to be human and use their power to scare people into following their religion. So, you get things like the ten commandments in courtrooms, prayer in public schools that kids are forced by the government to attend, and so forth. It just isn't good for the whole freedom thing we pride ourselves on.
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