XPost: alt.atheism, alt.agnosticism, talk.religion.misc   
   From: colanth@pern.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:58:28 +0100, "Humaan"  wrote:   
      
   >"Colanth"  wrote in message   
   >news:ef0cv6h9oeiuba5h4ebmv1e59sl7mp91e6@4ax.com...   
   >> On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:43:17 +0100, "Humaan"  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>I find it curious how secular Humanists seem to dwell on religion.   
   >>   
   >> *WE'RE* not the ones trying to illegally force the government to   
   >> support our primitive beliefs.   
   >>   
   >>>How do humanists divine good/bad, moral/immoral?   
   >>   
   >> The same way you define comfortable/uncomfortable.  Only people who   
   >> have to ask that question need a book to tell them the difference.   
      
   >"The same way you define comfortable/uncomfortable."   
   >That's what I feared. Under that definition, almost everyone who thinks   
   >can be called a humanist. Every decision on ethics can be called a   
   >humanist ethic.   
      
   Children can't understand why all adults make the same decision in the   
   same circumstance.  Don't play with that rattlesnake.  Don't walk out   
   in front of that speeding car.  Don't walk off that cliff.   
      
   That doesn't mean that the adults are wrong, or that some adult is   
   going to try to fly (not a sane adult, anyway).   
      
   The fact that you don't know why the tide comes in and goes out   
   doesn't mean there's a god, and the fact that you have no moral sense   
   doesn't mean that moral people don't.   
      
   >Hoping that "good" will just appear when people try to summon it up by   
   >thought will not even narrow down all the likely answers.   
      
   Yet that's all that religion is - hoping that the god you believe in   
   exists.   
      
   >I am not trying to suggest we need a little book to tell us what is good and   
   >bad.   
   >I do feel that there must be a harder definition of good/moral than is being   
   >propounded.   
      
   Is there a "harder definition" or too hot to survive or too cold to   
   survive?  Not to people who have no thermal nerve endings - they need   
   a "harder definition" of the conditions. Moral people *know* when   
   something is right or wrong, the same way you know if your head is too   
   far under water to breathe.   
   --   
   "As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation.   
   But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have   
   been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made   
   them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" - John Adams, letter   
   to FA Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)