A handy little site you all should visit:
And here's the best bit:
...you have a number of rights and responsibilities. These include (but are not limited to):
1. Have no gods.
2. Don't worship stuff.
3. Be polite.
4. Take a day off once in a while.
5. Be nice to folks.
6. Don't kill people.
7. Don't fool around on your significant other.
8. Don't steal stuff.
9. Don't lie about stuff.
10. Don't be greedy.
Sounds good to me. The FSM commands you all to follow these suggestions.
All except 1. look good. Weird thing though-- that's the one the rest are based on. Twisting that one into the exact opposite of what it originally was cheapens and trivialises the rest.
ReplyDeleteSilly and petty, with no real reason for it. Sigh. You really need to get a little bit out of lockstep with the far left from time to time, tc. You're smarter than this.
Yes, I still check in from time to time.
Nick, that's the POINT.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that it DOESN'T take belief in a god to develop rules for moral behavior; most of them are pretty similar across religions and cultures.
Cropped from the quote above is the title: Atheistic Rights and Responsibilitiies.
The list isn't a satire or re-write of the Ten C's, it's a summary of what most cultures arrive at in their moral code, regardless of the belief part of it. Not ot be silly or petty; the real reason is to point out that atheist, theis, or agnostic, a reasonable moral code pretty much looks the same.
Of course, I violate #1 myself, by belief in FSM and His Noodly Appendage (see link upper right)
Thanks for stopping by though. Thaks for the compliment; It's not that I'm in lockstep with the Left; it's that I am farther left than most of them, so I'm actually out in front.
Okay, so I missed the point. And I'm glad some, maybe all for all I know, athiests have a moral code. But none of that really changes the fact that the list really is the Ten Commandments rewritten to eliminate God. It just is.
ReplyDeleteSo, how come so many on the left are all up in arms when any reference to the Ten Commandments is made? Why are these moral statements offensive when they come from God, but not so when they come from man?
More in general-- why do so many people on the left feel they are intellectually superior to their counterparts on the right? Conversely, why do so many people on the right feel they are morally superior to their counterparts on the left?
Shot in the dark here-- hubris. Throw around terms like anti-intellectualism and instantly feel smarter than those you belittle. Despite the fact that the actual reaction to the left isn't anti-intellectual, it's anti-pompous.
Contrariwise-- throw around terms like moral relativism and instantly feel more spiritual and morally superior to those poor lost souls on the left. Despite the fact that most liberals do believe in God and do have strong spiritual components in their lives, even though most of them are evangelicals.
It's a profound disconnect, being heightened by the serious rage against the other that both sides are demonstrating. At the present moment, I find the disconnect to be worse on the left than on the right, but I must say that the Administration is making a concentrated effort to get me back on the other sideline.
Which brings us around to getting out of lockstep-- whether you are ahead or behind, you are still in lockstep. And the trouble with that is that the instantaneous reaction is to belittle the other simply because they are other. So, I simply remind you that the bank of good ideas is not open to only liberals, and that adherence to principles and ideas must be tempered with periods of reflection to determine if those ideas and principles are still as valid as they were when you first adopted them as your own.
Not to be preachy-- some of this blather is for my own benefit. Most of my readers now agree with my point of views, and so tend to reinforce those views. Which tends to lead me further rightward. Where I'm not sure I want to be-- at least not the rightward that is George Bush's Republicanism.
This is a major flaw in this blogging thing-- in some ways it is like a diary, but in others it is like the proverbial echo chamber I have belittled in some of my posts. If everyone who reads what you say agrees with you, when will your ideas be challenged, and how will your beliefs and perceptions grow? Which is why I try to make a point of listneing to/reading folks I tend to disagree with but still find intelligent and intersting.
How I got here from where I started, I'm not sure. =)