“do you believe we have inalienable rights? If so, what makes them inalienable?”
Yes, I do believe that we have natural inalienable rights. Why? For me, I love my life AND I love people in my life: my family, friends... When you have love, you realize, you wouldn’t want anything to happen to that love or to those loved ones. For me this is the core of my moral code.
I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my family or my friends, so I wouldn’t hurt anyone else’s family or friends. That’s not a cycle I want to be a part of. Hurting another person physically or psychologically teaches others to do the same.
From what I can see, people that don’t get that kind of love in their life, well, they don’t learn that lesson very easy. And they can’t be taught it and I am skeptical with good reason that they can simply be told that God (a god) loves them and expect that to replace human love. They have to experience it. It’s harder for them, I know, but they must respect this inalienable right. There are consequences for the blatant disregard of human life, because crime is a cancer. Domestic violence is a cancer. Hate is a cancer.
So.. I support causes that may seem wishy washy to some, because I truly believe that unless the unloved get loved, they are facing an obstacle that’s going to be pretty hard to overcome. They don’t learn to respect the pain of others.
Of course this is an oversimplification and I am sure you can see how I apply this in all different kinds of ways. For instance, some love isn’t healthy and doesn’t do a thing to ingrain natural inalienable rights. But my overall logic is much the same as a Christian or Jew or Mormon....I just don’t get it from the Bible, it comes from within.
Is that so dangerous?
You can always choose to be loving and respectful to humanity. The problem is that people DON’T make that choice. That’s why we have the world that we have.
On the atheist view, why should anyone "respect" the electrochemical concatenations of your brain? On a more fundamental level, HOW is it even possible for electrochemical reactions to "respect" one another?
I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my family or my friends, so I wouldn’t hurt anyone else’s family or friends. That’s not a cycle I want to be a part of. Hurting another person physically or psychologically teaches others to do the same
And if others feel just the opposite, so what? Their brain chemistry is just as much a product of blind, purposeless evolutionary forces as yours is. On your view, you both are nothing more than bi-pedal carbon units doomed to eventual extinction, individually and collectively. So on what grounds do you imagine that your existence has any more significance or objective purpose than that, say, of a fish?
But my overall logic is much the same as a Christian or Jew or Mormon....I just don’t get it from the Bible, it comes from within.
Is that so dangerous?
Yes. What you don't know can hurt you. You have a form of logic, it's just that you can't account for your logic or your reason on your own atheistic presuppositions.
Cordially,
I've always wondered about atheists who wind up in our camp, when most atheists typically are in the opposing camp.
But then I realize that "our" atheists are of a type.
You believe in inalienable rights, which means you accept that there are eternal truths. You accept and believe that Love is the fundamental good in the universe.
For me this is the core of my moral code.
Exactly. And where did this awareness come from? However much or however little you realize it you have absorbed a very particular understanding of life which simply doesn't exist everywhere.
my overall logic is much the same as a Christian or Jew or Mormon....
Exactly. You've been shaped by the judeo-christian understanding of truth and morality and love, and you have internalized it, and it is a part of you.
I just don’t get it from the Bible, it comes from within.
Exactly, again. You have internalized this without understanding necessarily where it comes from. God speaks into the hearts of men and if your personal noise level isn't too high you will occasionally become aware of it. You will not always put a name to it.
What I see again and again is this: People make assumptions about what a "god" must be like, and then when that doesn't make sense, or doesn't seem to jibe with reality, they reject God's existence. There is another way to go about it. Rather than assume what a god must look like, and then not finding anything that looks like that, assuming that there isn't one, reverse the process. There is a much bigger adventure ahead if you let God reveal himself to you. You're already pointed in the right direction; you know that Love is fundamental. You know that Liberty is fundamental. You know that Truth is fundamental. That already should tell you that God isn't exactly who you thought he was.
And with that in mind, go back and re-read your Bible and you will see something completely different this time around.
You said something else, too, about having to experience something yourself for you to know that it is true. Again, exactly. Don't look for the fairy-tale God, let the real God show himself to you. There is always a big difference between people who have read about something versus the people who have lived it. You're going to live it.