- Be open minded and willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
- Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not believe what you want to be true.
- The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
- Every person has the right to control their own body.
- God is not necessary to be a good person, or to live a full and meaningful life.
- Be mindful of the consequences of all of your actions and recognise that you must take responsibility for them.
- Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect they want to be treated.
- We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations - which is not to be confused with unborn non-viable fetuses.
- There is no right way to live.
- Leave the world a better place than you found it.
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These are
rational positions by which to live one's life; unlike certain "commandments" of an irrational mythology one might mention.
Your list is a bunch of convoluted and contradicting poppycock. You toss out a bunch of meaningless platitudes and conjectures couched in self-aggrandizing opinions which you've not supported in any meaningful way.
1. Be open minded and willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
You're not the least bit open minded. In fact, you're very narrow minded. You refuse to accept evidence that doesn't support your narratives. You won't even acknowledge spiritual evidence, even when it is the foundation for your own premises.
The personal attack on me aside, your response suggests that there is "spiritual evidence" that is objective, and verifiable. I have yet to see any presented.
2. Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not believe what you want to be true.
Again, you do not adhere to this whatsoever. You reject anything that conflicts with what you want to be true and you ridicule those who challenge your beliefs without a second thought
I will ignore this response, as it is not an attempt to dispute the position, but is merely an attack on my character, questioning my adherence to this position.
3. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
It's a reliable way to evaluate the physical world. To understand the natural world, you must also understand spiritual nature and the inadequacies of science to evaluate it.
Again, you present an argument against science by insisting that there is some mythical "spiritual realm" that exists for which there is no objective evidence. As related to my first point, "keeping an open mind" does not mean one entertains any notion, regardless of lack of evidence. That is not open-mindedness; it is gullibility. There is a difference.The natural world
is the physical world. To attempt to impose some non-physical existence onto the physical world for which there is no evidence, is simply not rational. Now, many will point to things like "love" for which they claim there is no "physical evidence", but is purely "spiritual" in nature. However, Love, like
any emotion is based in
biochemistry, and can be evidenced in the physical world.
4. Every person has the right to control their own body.
No they don't. You can't use your body to harm others. You don't have the right to use your body to destroy humanity or exploit resources you're not entitled to. Even though it's my own body, I can't get drunk and go driving down the road at 100 mph.
You are attempting to extend this position to a point that is not rationally supported. If
you have the right to control your own body, reason dictates that
everyone has that right. The obvious implication is that you do
not have the right to deprive that right from anyone else. Hence, this position, in no way, implies that you have the right to murder, or any other action that deprives another the right to control
their own bodies. You are 100% incorrect in your last statement. You absolutely do have the
moral prerogative to get as drunk as you would like, and to drive your vehicle as fast as you would like. There is absolutely no moral imperative that prevents either of these behaviours. However you choose to live in a society which has agreed upon a set of
legal restrictions on the behaviour of its citizens, such as drinking, and driving, and speeding. Like so many of your theist dominionists before you, you attempt to conflate morality with legality. They're not the same thing.
5. God is not necessary to be a good person, or to live a full and meaningful life.
This is your unfounded and unsupportable opinion. One that you refuse to apply #1-#3 to. Without the accountability of a God, you cannot define what is a "good person" in anything other than a subjective personal abstract. If you have rejected your own human spirit, you have deprived yourself of most of what delivers a meaningful and full life.
I have rejected nothing. "One that you refuse to apply #1-#3 to. Without the accountability of a God, you cannot define what is a "good person" in anything other than a subjective personal abstract.," is the unsupported claim.
6. Be mindful of the consequences of all of your actions and recognise that you must take responsibility for them.
Or WHAT? What if you DON'T take responsibility? What if you ignore consequences? Who holds you accountable for your actions?
Or live a life constantly being surprised, and disappointed by the negative consequences of your unexamined life. One would think the "Or what" would be obvious. But, this is, of course, the shortcoming of theists - particularly Christians. They do not think they
need to consider the consequences of their actions, because "God is on their side", and when they behave badly they have "the Devil" to blame for their "temptation". so, they are constantly surprised when their actions have unforeseen consequences, making their lives difficult, and unpleasant.
7. Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect they want to be treated.
This one is great but it's totally rooted in our human spirituality and is a highly spiritual concept. There is no evidence of this in the wild animal kingdom. This is purely a human attribute which emerges as a result of our connection to spirit and comprehension of a power greater than self.
No it's not. It's grounded in rational self-examination. It is built on the simple, reasonable position that everyone - barring some sort of mental defect - all share the same, or at least a similar, sense of self-preservation. That's not spirituality, it is nature. I like having both of my eyes. I find them useful, so I would really prefer that no on poke out one of my eyes. It doesn't take a very sophisticated "spiritual" reasoning to presume that, if I feel this way, most other people do too. So, if I don't want anyone poking
my eye out, it would probably be a bad idea to do that to someone else. This, along with number 6, incidentally, answers your quandary over how to determine a "good person" without deity. It is by applying these two principles that one is able to measure the "goodness", or lack thereof, of people. No God necessary.
See, this is where your
choosing to attempt to believe in some spiritual realm for which you cannot provide any objective evidence, requires you to make things much more complicated than they need to be, in order to justify your belief in the "spiritual".
8. We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations - which is not to be confused with unborn non-viable fetuses.
Unborn, non-viable fetuses are human beings in a state of development. Here is where you totally depart from rules 1-7 so that you may invoke your own moral relativism. It illustrates the whole entire problem with your belief system.
Moral relativism
is my position. The whole point of positions 1 through 7 is that morality is relative, and personal. Moral relativism is the only rational position. Absolutism demands a system for which there can be no exceptions, and therefore sets people up to be put into situations in which they are doomed to fail their own moral code. Morality must never be simple black, and white, because there is a universe of grey that exists in the interactions of humanity.
9. There is no right way to live.
Then what exactly was your point in all of this?
Something you will never understand, as you have allowed your life to be guided by the black, and white blinders of theistic absolutism.
10. Leave the world a better place than you found it.
Or WHAT? ...Again, this is a nice thought but what holds you accountable? After you're gone, who gives a shit whether you did this or not? And do you think you've left the world a better place by tearing down human spirituality and spirit-based morality?
Again, you confuse a social system of laws, which requires reward, and punishment in order to maintain, with a personal moral code, which one attempts to adhere to for no other reason than, in his mind, it is the right way to live. If one is myopic, and only interested in one's personal comfort, and enjoyment, then I suppose you may well be correct, and this position is unnecessary. In my, possibly flawed. reasoning, however, because I know that I only have this life, and nothing of me, beyond my progeny, will continue after my death, all I have of myself to continue beyond my death is my legacy. As such, I prefer to leave a positive mark on the world (leaving the world better than I found it) so that my legacy will be a positive one, rather than a negative one.
Incidentally, while I don't agree with most of your arguments, I will thank you, Boss, for, unlike many of your compatriots, at least giving me the respect of discussing the content of my post, rather than simply dismissively presuming that there is nothing to discuss.