Posted on 04/29/2010 8:58:35 PM PDT by se_ohio_young_conservative
>>> I’m under no obligation to prove my conservative credentials.
Again, I didn’t ask you to prove anything.
My original point was that the term “conservative” is extremely vague in comparison to “atheist”.
My definition of conservatism is no doubt quite different than yours for obvious reasons. I’m sure it would be difficult to find perfectly consistent definitions among Christians who attend the same church. I honestly don’t know what atheists generally consider conservatism to be... Why are you so afraid to divulge your views on what conservative means??? All you seem to be focused on is the dangers of believing in God, and you refuse to address the other side of the argument which is relevant to this thread topic. If you are not willing to express what conservatism means to you, then my troll charge stands. If you prefer the term RINO or CINO, then so be it. To me, a troll is someone claiming to be something they are not to gain access to forums such as this one. That’s not a personal attack. It’s a judgment of your behavior.
Ok.
You are free to make whatever claims you choose.
I’m not afraid, I’m just not interested.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
Since you have been so candid with us, would you mind sharing what religious plans (if any) you and your wife have for the twins as they get older?
That's some ways off but I'd surmise that this matter has been discussed.
No. Fallacy of the false dichotomy. There is literally a whole universe out there that does not have to be explained by either "God did it" or "man did it."
Fundamental rights are simply a necessary condition of being human. How rights, or any other philosophical construct, can exist a priori without resorting to a God who created them is a fairly complicated area of philosophy I won't delve into; suffice it to say that the simplest explanation, "God did it," is not the only coherent and logically consistent one. Mathematics flows from a few basic postulates, without regard to whether those came from an omnipotent creator or not.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident" -- not revealed by scripture. "their Creator" and, elsewhere in the Declaration, "the laws of nature and of nature's God." These are references to natural law, not to a particular religious tradition or a particular conception of the Divine.
God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He will never change and he will never take back the Rights he gives us.
"to preserve these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. ...[W]henever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
This construction holds true whether the laws of nature exist as a synthetic a priori or as the gift of a benevolent God. If they are laws of an impersonal Nature, there is no universal assent to what those rights are, and the task falls to the people to determine what they are and how best to preserve them. If they are ordained by God, there is no universal assent, and the end result is the same.
If you are trying to live a moral code based on objective standards set by God, you only have to live up to whatever you decide those standards are.
Thought provoking post. Very well written.
I am actually somewhat impressed with the restraint of other posters, I expected it to happen sooner.
could have happened at any time, they’d still be wrong. Jeses Christ, the Son of God came to earth as a man. While here He founded one religion, on His diciples. That was the Catholic religionb......you don’t have to believe it but that doesn’t make it less true. I you can read, and do read the bible, it becomes very plain. Other than Catholics there were no other “christians” for 1500 years.
Why? What did you see when you did that?
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