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Religion
In reply to the discussion: The two big things I think religion provides that secularism does not. [View all]Democracyinkind
(4,015 posts)31. The premise that philosophy can't provide the why
to acting ethically. I know from personal experience that - f.e. - Utilitarians or Followers of the Categorical Imperative have just as good an answer to the why as followers of religions have. Just ask them.
Please don't make me spell out Mill's or Kant's particular answer to the why. Or Rawls', who even explicitly integrates the (in my eyes ridiculous and misplaced notion) of self-interest into his version of the answer.
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The two big things I think religion provides that secularism does not. [View all]
Donald Ian Rankin
May 2013
OP
It is interesting you only consider the "positive" things that you believe religion brings,
trotsky
May 2013
#1
I believe religion brings many negative things, which are more than adequately discussed elsewhere.
Donald Ian Rankin
May 2013
#3
JMHO, but I think most of the religious people who post on DU avoid this group like the plague.
cbayer
May 2013
#14
I believe the relevant saying here is "first cast out the beam out of thine own eye". N.T.
Donald Ian Rankin
May 2013
#70
How utterly insulting to condemn my post without bothering to read it.
Donald Ian Rankin
May 2013
#6
You think it's rare for an atheist to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do?
Iggo
May 2013
#77
If I had said that, rather than saying exactly the reverse, I would have been wrong.
Donald Ian Rankin
May 2013
#11
i don't know that "demand" is the right word. most modern religions HAVE moral codes
unblock
May 2013
#16
many modern religions don't have language that strong, certainly not in practice.
unblock
May 2013
#26
It is obviously not "moral behavior" that gets one damned for eternity.
Warren Stupidity
May 2013
#39
Oh, and your assumption is that without religion people would eat their babies.
Warren Stupidity
May 2013
#22
i disagree that religion "provides" a moral code. it claims a moral code as its own.
unblock
May 2013
#24
The answer to 'why behave ethically' might turn out to be 'because it benefits you directly'.
Bluenorthwest
May 2013
#34
If an atheist desires living in an ethical world, then that atheist has a really good, secular
ZombieHorde
May 2013
#36
I'm intrigued by questions of what sociological and psychological roles religion plays
LiberalAndProud
May 2013
#58
As to your first point, that's an argument that demonstrates the ethical superiority...
Humanist_Activist
May 2013
#68