Sam Harris Religious Moderates problem with believing in a immoral god

Sam Harris One of the many problems with religious moderates.

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[gibsonfan871]

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[muteskutes1]

religious moderation makes no sense. Saying that I'm moderately religious is like saying I'm almost or slightly pregnant. You either are religious or not. You either accept all that your religion/god instruct you to do and make it part of every day, every minute, every second of your life, or you reject it altogether. Neither the Bible/Koran etc nor the Church allows any religious moderation. So the people that are not zelous believers and followers are actually disguised non-beleivers/agnostics

[ashman165]

@Youlube32: well, it's at least honest of you that you freely admit you pick and choose what to believe, which means that you wear your Jesus blinders. That's fine I suppose, and it's progress of a kind. Now, to get you to ignore the minority of your religion where the good things are promoted and instead to urge to think for yourself . . .

[jonwalksred]

Let us not be obscured by this point. Can we agree that Atheism, or whatever label we assume, 'should' be about more. I do not want to minimize why we think and feel the way we do. It's not an uninformed conclusion. The deduction has been reached via research, scientific inquiry, reason and philosophy. At least it has for me, and I maintain, it should for us all. It separates us, and must do so. Otherwise, as I previously stated, it negates our advantage and a large one clearly exists.

[jonwalksred]

@sparrow & Ashman You've misunderstood my point. I am not, and nor would or could I, dispute your definitions of Atheism. I am merely trying to say that, for me, personally, it is a lot more than a statement about belief or lack thereof. Again, I feel it is what Atheism should espouse. If we haven't considered the all important question through science and reason, we can't be too proud. This is obviously why Hitchens, Harris et al, often resist the word Atheist. It's not an adequate description.

[Youlube32]

@ashman165 I was more or less referring to people who were crying out in pain and suffering or rejoicing when fate benefitted them, which I don't know how one could consider that 'immoral" but that's fine I guess. You might see it as a waste of life, but I have never thought it so. To each is own, whatever works for you works for you. Plus, if I were not in church on Sunday morning I would be sleeping, and I hardly see an extra hour of sleep worth despairing over.

[ashman165]

@Youlube32: I don't particularly care that an author is sincerely pouring out his heart when what he's saying is immoral. I haven't a moment of my life to waste in the way of trying to divine the sincerity of one who is promulgating, on pain of death, the forced extermination of entire peoples of the world, condoning rape, slave holding and subjugation of more than half the world's population (women in this case) as property. Sorry, the occasional nice thing isn't recompense for that.

[Youlube32]

@ashman165 Fair enough. It's not that I ignore parts as stupid, it's just that I've read into those parts and why they were written in the first place. If we are talking about the Old Testament, I could show you places where one sect of Israel writes something to make a mockery of them, or places where something was written with an entirely political purpose in mind. I could also show you other places in the Bible where the author is sincere and pouring out his heart with no ill motive.

[mestrini]

It's so good to hear an American saying "Nuclear" instead of "Nucular"

I thank thee in the name of science and education Sam Harris.