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To: Oldeconomybuyer
We are very ethical. We do the right thing because we think it's right --

Amazing. Belief in God provides the absolutes of right and wrong. Without God, there is no right or wrong. These intellectual midgets just don't get IT.

5 posted on 03/10/2002 4:32:42 AM PST by newfreep
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To: newfreep
People with your attitude don't make being Christian very appealing.

It's funny - I don't begrudge anybody their religion. I think it's just fine to have the Ten Commandments hanging on the wall of a courthouse. I don't have any problem with a nativity scene. I'm Republican, voted for Bush, served in the military, own a gun and am almost always anti-abortion.

I am also an atheist. I'm not interested in "converting" anybody to atheism, and I'm not interested in campaigning against prayer in schools or any other such business. What I'm interested in is pursuing life, liberty and happiness in the Free Republic that is supposed to be America.
11 posted on 03/10/2002 6:02:20 AM PST by NeoCrusade
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To: newfreep
Belief in God provides the absolutes of right and wrong.

No. Belief in God gives you a cop out: Do what God says or else. It's might makes right with a supernatural twist.

16 posted on 03/10/2002 6:50:54 AM PST by TheQuestion
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To: newfreep
The important thing to remember is that most atheists ARE nice moral people. The point of your statement is not that atheists are evil or immoral, but that they're inconsistent.

They reject the existence of God, but then clamor to prove they are "moral" - even though the word has no real meaning in a world without God. Any effort to establish a morality apart from God inevitably relies on the religious traditions they claim to reject. Non-violence, universal rights, and cooperation with others are seen as self-evident priciples, and anyone who dares challenge the validity or question the foundation of those precepts in an atheistic system is typically insulted and belittled for his free-thinking. (e.g. when asked for the source of some universal right, a typical answer is, "How can anyone question the universal right to blah blah blah? You must be a liberal commie pinko fag.")

The reason for this is that there is no validity to those precepts; they are hold-overs from the system they claim to have left behind. This then leaves only two options - 1. Accept the rules and therefore the existence of God. 2. Reject God and live in a world without rules. Option number two sounds liberating and appealing, until it is realized that the other guy has no rules, either. Since neither option is acceptable, it's easier to call names than to think about it.

C.S. Lewis nailed it when he pointed out the circular reaonsing - that selfishness is "bad" because it harms society, and harming society is bad because it's selfish. The atheist will resort either to "self-evident axioms" or throw up his hands and challenge you to come up with a better source of morality outside of God - in spite of the fact that it's his job to defend his belief system.

They may claim to do what's "right" for different motives, but they fail to see that "right" is a "moral" distinction that evaporates in a world without God.

27 posted on 03/10/2002 8:04:40 AM PST by watchin
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