@Michael
I would rather see someone flash a cross than a $10,000 Rolex watch [snip, obvious disgust at skimpy clothing and gyrating of the pelvis]… But in a free society, both actions are tolerated. Only your kind of people don’t want to tolerate the first kind (perhaps because it makes you feel guilty?).
Goodness me, Michael, you have really outdone yourself, here.
You say that “my kind” of people don’t want to tolerate the first kind. In what way don’t we tolerate it? Is complaining about something, and saying it’s annoying the same as not tolerating it? If so, then you are guilty of exactly the same thing. You know, just there where you were complaining about skimpy clothing and gyration of the pelvis. How intolerant of you.
Why would we feel guilty about someone worshipping something we don’t believe exists?
Society is by definition a group of people who cooperate for the common good based on a moral code (law).
And there is absolutely no need for religion in this. Do you really need a list of dos and don’ts to tell you that it’s wrong to kill someone? I might point out that it’s not immoral to kill someone who’s trying to kill someone else, or you, or whatever. Oh, and the law of the land agrees.
Or unless God commands you to wipe out entire civilisations, including the children and newborns. I guess killing is ok then, too.
The problem with atheism is that it promotes a vacuuity of morality and instead resorts to the laws of the jungle recognizing that we derive from animals/nature.
Oh my, what? This is quite possibly the stupidest thing you’ve said so far. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and pretend you didn’t really mean that.
Nothing will ever convince me that, e.g., it’s OK to kill a person because 100 people in the room want him dead (Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill) or that it’s OK for adults to have sex with children.
Oh, I’m glad you brought it up; what’s the Bible’s position on underage sex? And where in the commandments does it say “don’t abuse children?” I guess all the space was taken up making sure we knew he was god, and not to worship any other gods (other gods?), and graven images etc, because that’s clearly a much higher priority than child abuse.
We need a moral code or our society collapses.
Yes, it’s “treat others as you would like to be treated” and is the basis for secular law. No, Jesus of the Bible didn’t come up with it. It’s only when religion gets involved that laws get nasty and stupid.
The United States, e.g., was constructed on Judeo-Christian foundations.
I can think of two commandments that are also laws. Killing and stealing. There are many other laws that have nothing to do with religion. How is this a Judeo-Christian construction?
I will add that words on currency and words in the pledge of allegiance have absolutely nothing to do with moral foundation. And it’s only been on the money, and in the pledge for 50 years. It was not part of the foundation of America’s morals. Your history on this matter is rather inaccurate.
If Novak Djokovic and Tim Tebow choose to publicly thank God for their successes, it is their right to do so. You of course have the right to be irritated with and criticize this as I have the right to be irritated by the worship of good-for-nothing “celebrities” in the Western media such as Michael Vick who derive pleasure from witnessing the slaughter of dogs. However, rescinding that right to express my cultural and religious heritage is simply fascist and given the way that Europe is going at the moment, we should all be deeply concerned.
You were doing so well, here, because I agree with most of what you said in that bit. But then you ruin it all by implying we’re trying to rescind your rights. You are seeing something that isn’t there. Maybe it’s that persecution complex you Christians cling to so tightly.
