That's fine. No one is telling anyone not to stick to their fairy tales. The biggest concern is when religion makes special claims of authority, and uses this imagined authority to legislate the lives of others, regardless of belief or lack of the same. That's my biggest issue anyway.

Your analogy isn't particularly useful because of that.

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Posted by ShortyRob

Member since Oct 2008

82116 posts

Posted on 9/19/17 at 2:56 pm to DisplacedBuckeye

quote:
The biggest concern is when religion makes special claims of authority,

I really don't know the big deal about this one.

Everyone uses their belief systems to make specific claims of authority. From the farthest left to the farthest right. It's like the go-to mode of attack.

As an atheist, I see no substantial difference between one appealing to their religious morality as an excuse to impose upon their fellow citizens and those who appeal to their egalitarian morality to impose upon their fellow citizens.

I mean hell. The "Social Contract" is as amorphous as anything anyone can come up with yet, it's often cited as some sort of "authority".

I really don't care WHY people think a thing. I simply evaluate the thing.

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Posted by RCDfan1950

United States

Member since Feb 2007

35027 posts

Posted on 9/19/17 at 4:12 pm to DisplacedBuckeye

quote:
That's fine. No one is telling anyone not to stick to their fairy tales. The biggest concern is when religion makes special claims of authority, and uses this imagined authority to legislate the lives of others, regardless of belief or lack of the same. That's my biggest issue anyway. Your analogy isn't particularly useful because of that.

Are we in the same Historical Paradigm, DB? As I comprehend the history of our Religious/Political experience (Michelle's desire to "change" it nws

)...I perceive it to have been a Religious-based Principle which most abhors/limits the idea of "authority to legislate the lives of other...".

Are there any of the historically-professed God-given Rights of the which you find undesirable or unjust? Do you believe that Justice is/can be determined by a simple Majority (I.e., "mob rule")? Is it not rational to believe that the Principle of "all people are created equal" (when obviously such is an Empirically-ludicrous assertion) can only be true....IF...such is viewed in the context that what we witness re people's (obvious) inequality can only be relative to the God Paradigm belief that they are on an eternal journey which enables them to one day BECOME equal. By means of an educated and free-willed choice.

If there is no God...if individuals are no more or less valuable (and are mostly detrimental to the health of Nature)...then does not rational common sense, practicality and refined appreciation for the Process demand they (problematic, negative value people) simply be removed? Like a cancer.

Just WHO determines what is or is not THE Authority that can will rule as a Societal instrument for civility, peace, "the pursuit of happiness" and survival and prosperity...absent an Absolute? Me? You? The Majority? Elites? Sounds like a recipe for 'wailing and gnashing of teeth' to me.

My greatest concern is for when there is no belief in Absolute Authority. There are few Ideas that are powerful enough to unite an unequal and envious people; the hope that there is more lives than this one (Religion) for all to become 'equal'...is the only one that holds such power. And that power only exist to the degree that the People believe; otherwise...the 'vacuum'...and the consequences therein. Herding cats.

Time will tell. Kinda like Trump's assertion per Socialism and Venezuela, I suspect. Sounds good...feels good...just don't pan out.