If it fails us, we have no more hold on each other, no more knowledge of each other. If it deceives us, it breaks up all our relations and dissolves all the bonds of our society” Montaigne hits upon several points concerning the many reasons why lying, of any kind ultimately should not be condoned. First in foremost, to a man writing during the 16th century the idea of God and religion had somewhat of a different meaning then it does today. In a time when ideas such as religious toleration and scientific discoveries such as the theory of evolution were completely unheard of, the teachings of the church and the fear
Evolutionary Christianity With the times that we are in today, we can see that our faith is at the point of maturing, or becoming more known to man individually. Our faith at one time use to be pure greatness, somehow this all changed with time, but now we can see that the greatness of faith is returning. Evolution is expanding globally and making itself more known to the world. Many people that believe in different religions tend to have put aside evolution. This is because to some people, evolution is more of a random, has no meaning and to some it is 'Godless'.
Thus, he believes there is no reason why should you live a moral life rather than for one's self. Fidley asks Seltzer one last question, “what motivation for adopting the moral point of view can you possibly offer without a belief in God and immorality?” which leads us to this quote, “When religion tells us that there is nothing more we can say about morality than that we can’t see the reasons for it, but do it if you know what’s good for you, then I do condemn it. We can do better than that. We can become moral grown-ups. And if there were a God, surely he would approve”.
“It would be misleading to think that all these factors influenced all scientists to the same degree. However, a major component of anyone’s theoretical outlook is his religious worldview (which could be atheism or agnosticism, as well as a traditional religion). Worldview had a far more significant influence on the origin of old-earth geology than has often been perceived or acknowledged. A person’s worldview not only affects the interpretation of the facts but even the observation of the facts. Another prominent historian of science rightly comments about scientists and non-scientists: ‘men often perceive what they expect, and overlook what they do not wish to
Flew argued that religious believers don’t allow any evidence to account against their beliefs therefore Flew comes to the conclusion that religious language is meaningless. Flew uses John Wisdom’s parable of the gardener, in which there are two explorers they come across a clearing. One believes that a gardener is responsible for the clearing and the other one doesn't. There is no evidence for the believers claim however he still believes that a gardener is responsible by changing his hypothesis, the gardener is invisible. Just like a religious believer who states “god loves us” but can’t explain the contradiction of evil in the world, believers qualify their statements by explaining god’s love is not like humans love he calls this “death by a thousand qualifications”.
In the quote below Rand explains why she rejects religion outright, and she believes man himself deserves the attention: Just as religion has preempted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach. “Exaltation” is usually taken to mean an emotional state evoked by contemplating the supernatural. “Worship” means the emotional experience of loyalty and dedication to something higher than man… But such concepts do name actual emotions, even though no supernatural dimension exists; and these emotions are experienced as uplifting or ennobling, without the self-abasement required by religious definitions.
They believe that “life is the most basic gift of loving God-a gift over which we have stewardship but not absolute dominion”. Even if it is legalized in many places around the world today, there are many that are still strongly against it. Dr. Leo Alexander says that “the problem with euthanasia is the acceptance of an attitude that life is worthless, can be thrown away. That attitude is in its early stages right now, but as it progresses, so will our value of life drop. Anyone, the socially unproductive, the socially unwanted, will be considered useless; will kill off our own species, our morals.
Response on Friedrich Nietzsche Veronica Piccioni The Death of God is Nietzche’s explination that the idea of God can no longer give human beings answers and can no longer provide certain values to us. It is the end of the western world’s reliance on religion as a moral compass and source of meaning. The western world had depended on the rule of God for thousands of years. Religion gave order to society and meaning to life and without it he believed that society will move into an age of nihilism which is the total rejection of established laws and institutions. Another major part of Nietzsche’s philosophy is his concept of “will to power".
Another idea related to this is the idea of predestination which was the view of the philosopher- John Calvin. Predestination is the idea that our lives are set/planned out previous to the start of our lives. Calvin said that man is “inherently evil and is not capable of good as his free will chooses to reject God”. Therefore, this suggests that God has predestined our lives as to those who will be saved and who will not. This further reinforces that we have no choice or influence on our lives and the events that happen, so therefore God will know the ethical decisions we will make as he has already predestined them in our lives.
Bill Maher is a smart individual but an agnostic can only promote what they know which means not very much when it comes to religion. Bill Maher said “Rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look in the mirror and realize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price.” To me having a meaning and a reason to