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A non-religious person is more likely to be moral because they have everything to lose whereas a religious person has nothing to lose. This is our only life, as far as we know, and most of us aren't too likely to risk it. You, on the other hand, have the promise of an afterlife and all you have to do is profess your belief and obedience.
The atheists on EvC (you, and Compmage i think) introduced this phrase, which has been a good point to contemplate for me lately.
Let me tell you a local story. I was taught in elementary school (about late 1980s to early 1990s) taht atheists are bad, nonmoral people. My teacher said that their lack of faith made them behave as they wish, indulging in depravities. Why do they taught me this? It was a political agenda. Indonesians experienced a horrible point in history in the Communist Party coup of 1965, and the aftershock, which include the massacre of communists and the reign of Suharto's New Order, planted a trauma in Indonesians' minds, a hatred towards Communists. Since the commies were atheists, by then denigrating atheists has been a part of the political propaganda in education. I was taught that. Religion, good; atheism, bad.
However, now I have found that not all atheists were moral degenerates; sometimes I think that they faced a greater battle--to maintain a moral position without having a good prospect of what he/she will gain from his/her moral acts. If I give small change to a beggar, part of me did that because charity can earn me heaven. But if an atheist did the same, he/she does not do that in order to get to heaven or avoid hell.
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Tell that to the Taliban when they were in charge of Afghanistan, or in Iran.
Have you seen those fundamentistic Islamic countries where it is imposed?
As for my own position, I think they overdo the shariah. Recently there has been some political Islamic parties which gain favor in some local governments in Indonesia (in Aceh), and they practised Islamic law there. However, I cannot endorse that they would prefer to make rules that prohibit women to walk alone at night than to strengthen the economy or stop the war between separatists and the Army. Most Islamic fundies fall into symbolism while neglecting the more real problems.
ANyway, wasn't the Taliban made in USA? They were part of the Communist-battling troops sponsored by AMerica to fend off Soviet troops, as a puppet of the Cold War. No wonder they were put up again as another puppet, this time to make Islam seem anachronistic and cruel.
Some espionage experts here commented that either CIA made Al-Qaeda or CIA infiltrated agents into them which turn them into sick terrorists, and the US media cheerfully made them covergirl of the month.
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