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Life without God

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Author Topic:   Life without God
Granny Magda
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Posts: 2462
From: UK
Joined: 11-12-2007
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Message 71 of 85 (608902)
03-15-2011 3:28 AM 		Reply to: Message 70 by slevesque
03-15-2011 3:21 AM

Hi Slevesque,
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In reality, killing thousands of people is no different then mowing the lawn.
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With the slight difference that when I mow my lawn, the grass doesn't scream and tearfully beg me to spare its life.
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The only moral principle that need be assumed is that suffering is bad, something that scarcely takes a great leap of faith. All further moral principles simply follow from this; they seek to reduce suffering.
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Mutate and Survive
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On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage
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 Message 70 by slevesque, posted 03-15-2011 3:21 AM slevesque has replied
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 Message 74 by slevesque, posted 03-15-2011 5:03 AM Granny Magda has replied
  
Granny Magda
Member
Posts: 2462
From: UK
Joined: 11-12-2007
Member Rating: 3.8

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Message 79 of 85 (608939)
03-15-2011 12:25 PM 		Reply to: Message 74 by slevesque
03-15-2011 5:03 AM

The chemical reactions it produces is of course different in both cases.
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Oh don't give me that Slevesque!
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I don't believe for a moment that were you to witness a massacre, your first thought would be "My, what an interesting chemical reaction!" and nor would mine be. No, you would be naturally horrified by the spectacle and whilst you might be moved to exclaim "Oh my God!" or some such, there is no real need to make reference to gods to feel that reaction. It is an intrinsic part of being human and it is one that has positive effects. The only assumption one need make is that our instinctive dislike of suffering (in yourself and others) is correct.
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I think your version makes far more, far greater assumptions.
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But suffering, and death, is a key component of natural selection. In a world where ''everything just IS'', well 'natural selection also just IS', and I don't see how you can justify it is bad in the case of some general concept of suffering, yet claim it 'just is' in the case of natural selection
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You are always keen to accuse others of engaging in fallacies, so why are you encouraging me to embrace this one?
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Just because I believe that natural selection is, does not mean that I think it ought to be.
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(unless you are of the view that Natural selection is bad)
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Abso-frickin'-lutely I am.
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One of my major objections to a creator god is that I cannot believe that a morally good entity would create so cruel and wasteful a set-up as evolution.
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quote:
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.
--Charles Darwin, from a letter to Asa Gray, 22 May 1860
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Mutate and Survive
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Edited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.
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On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage
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