There is a great deal of assumption going on here in your post. Let's look...........But first to cover Lee's query as to primal helping. We all concede that we have primal traits and these traits include but are not limited to primal helping. Primal helping, like nurturing and fear, is one in the group of primal traits. On the other hand "religion and faith are not in the primal group" but are human creations or whatever label you want to give them. My granddaughter will go and assist another child picking up toys on her own but she doesn't make any sign of the cross or get down on her knees and kiss the ground in praise or worship. When she gets a gift she doesn't say thank god she says thanks grandpa. Religions are a product of social conditioning and cultural order. If she never gets introduced to religion or gets instilled with notions of a vengeful deity it would probably serve her better and it won't preclude her becoming a sweet, loving and giving person.
AW; What does the voluntary subjection of oneself to a (god theory) have anything to do with it? Your assuming that there is or needs to be some dogma associated with "helping/assisting/working together" in an all atheist community. I help my neighbors, my friends and strangers without any book to guide me nor any dogmatic handbook to instruct me. People don't automatically become horrible people if they don't have a god; that is a nonsensical idea. I think it is horrible that we send our children off to become indoctrinated with all this religion nonsense, its like force feeding their brains. I see it all the time............ "mommy, why do I have to go to church?" "because sweetheart, if you don't god will rip out your guts, make your eyeballs fall out and turn your life into a living hell" "what is hell mommy" "hell is where you go to suffer and burn if you don't go to church" "now sweetheart, you just learn everything and believe everything they tell you and don't ask any questions". Last........You are assuming that helping is or has to be a duty. This clearly puts you on one side of the river. Believing in a god is not a prerequisite to helping someone. You are implying that atheists would stand around like dummies without a clue as to what to do if they didn't have some god to instill in them a guilt for not doing anything. Is that why you would help someone; because it is your "duty" to do so? If that is the case I'd rather you didn't help me. I may pull over to help out a stranger with a stalled out car simply on the basis that I've been in that position before and know how much better it is when you have someone else there to help you out or give you a ride to the nearest gas station. Would the stranger then assume that I was religious because I stopped to help? Many christians are hypocritical anyway when it comes to helping others. I can't count how many times I have been cut off by rude drivers with the cute little fish on their car. A lot religious people are fanatical and dangerous. So as my OP suggests we are better off without it. So not only do you assume that atheists need to have a religious duty to help someone but you also assume that people having a religion/ faith will help someone on account of their religious duty. If you could think outside of your religious box you would see that religion is not a necessity for the benefit of humanity. Essentially you are off on all counts. On Sep 13, 10:30 am, Alan Wostenberg <[email protected]> wrote: > Sure, "helping is primal". But the Jihadist, having a different > theology than the Christian, believes he is helping you by converting > you to Islam by the sword. Not so the Christian, for whom religion is > the "The voluntary subjection of oneself to God". > > The island of atheists? Sure, they'd "help others" for some definition > of "help" and "others". I know something about the Christian command > to love my neighbor but don't know the official atheist dogma on > helping others. If one acted like there were no God why would he > think he has any duty to help others? > > On Sep 12, 8:28 am, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > > > AW; > > Yes there is............. > > I'll refer you to rigsy's sept. 6 10:15 am post as to my "theistic > > religiosity" comment. > > > Also, people use therapy and AA like a religion- in fact, they "use" a > > lot of things in lieu of religion. What about jingoism? <<<rigsy > > > Do you think no one would help anyone else on an island of atheists > > because they didn't have a religion to tell them to do so? Helping > > is primal and innate as nurturing; religion and faith is human > > construct and not necessity.
