Clearsky

A society can bestow rights, whether it be by consensus or legislation.  No human is born with inbuilt rights. They may be born with needs, but unless their social environment chooses to address these, they will not have those needs fulfilled.

The human basic animal may have urges to ‘thrive’ but the human mind often quashes some of those urges.…[Read more]

I think you’re alluding to something like this: The realest rights are those legislated, with judicial oversight of due process on a per-incident basis when contested, and then enforced by an enforcement authority.

Unfortunately in past history and present, religion has played all these roles, and much of Islam in particular still employ very…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Maybe start with this video first.

Nicely thought-out/spelled-out video, covering biggest myths and providing best explanations. Most people like to simplify explanations, but “KISS” makes it too easy to avoid deeper understandings. “God did it, so why bother with scientific details?” is an easy cop out. OTOH, some…[Read more]

Clearsky wrote:
1)religion as beliefs and meaning […]  2) Religion as Identity( group) […]  3) religion as structured social relations. ( power relations)

I like that. I’ve never taken a course on religion, but if I did, I’d also be interested in how religion and politics relate (or not) to each other, especially those times when they’re kep…[Read more]

Christian history and variations of belief, including definitions of God, are a lot larger and more complex than Islamic history. Asking if Allah is a predator is more simply answered in the context of knowing how and which humans invented and promulgated beliefs in Him.

Islam is Human Religious Predatory Behavior, Ulitimate Version. The…[Read more]

@popebeanie It depends if it’s tax exempt.

And so, believer… is not believing in unicorns also a religion?

Would you like to annotate that statement, Jake?  After all, this is a discussion, not a card game 🙂

I would find Tolkien’s Middle Earth and all its critters more credible than any religions. At least the sacred text is non contradictory.

I also think that a common denominator in the religions I can bring to mind, is that all of them appear to have an unprovable belief that is alleged to be objective, ie that others joining the group can learn a…[Read more]

Interesting point, and might make some religious people think. Also makes it easier to define and lump cult members into their own lot, since they’ll most probably deny they’re in a cult. But then there’s the “I’m not religious, but spiritual” lot.

Useful, sometimes, especially when arguing that science is not a religion.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Genes are to biological DNA as Memes are to our cultural DNA.

Nice. Too bad cultural DNA can behave like silly putty looking for molds to fill.

@clearsky wrote : One drawback is that in the G.R ask one to treat others as we would like to be treated.

I think the more primitive issue is who we consider to be ‘others’.  Sexist, racist, misogynist- all acceptable states for a person as long as they are considered outside the group, and therefore not the ‘others’ in the Golden rule as a…[Read more]