Anyone got any good books on "useful" morality

[Ever5Participant 1008]

Morality :principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

Religion to me is merely a belief in something that is unknown. Blind Faith. I.E. this is what happens when I die. I’ve got that handled.

Morality is what I struggle with. It’s come to my attention that morality is a perception of reality. Slave Morality vs. Master Morality is what opened me up to seeing this. I’ll probably find it on my own, just simply now being aware of it. Slave morality is like wanting everyone to be equal, take from the rich, give to the poor, etc. Welfare state. It’s bad to be successful. It’s bad to be self actualized. Etc. And yeah, these are things I struggle with.

Religious text usually do have good insights into morality. The bible for example, I’ve learned a lot from that by translating it from the original greek. For example, forgiveness in all cases except that one verse. “Forgive and you shall be forgiven” all translate into “let them die”, “leave them behind”. Which I think is very good advice. Before hand, I thought, oo I’m supposed to forgive meaning pretend it never happened, which has hurt me on several occasions. The thing is, it was a wrong interpretation, the Bible does not ever say that when translated from the original greek. It says to leave them behind, basically to walk away, and if that means they die, then let them die.

This is what I’m talking about. My upbringing, childhood condition has implanted a lot of false and self harming beliefs into my mind about what is right action and what is wrong action. This is what I am trying to escape. False beliefs.

Truth has no place to live in the mind of a woman.

[surfdude12Participant 4103]

PistolPete wrote:

You will notice that socialist/communist states often echo the same arguments as made by our friend Autolite. Now why is that? Simple They reserve to the authoritarian state the power to decide right and wrong what is moral or not. this is why atheists deny God with one breath but then exalt the majesty of the “state” with their next.

You see without God the State is free to define Good/Evil. when they decide a group is “evil” and decides to round them up for extermination they don’t want others pointing out the immorality of doing so as contrary to God’s law—thus their penchant for killing off God.

Frankly I’m surprised autolite hasn’t emigrated to that most perfect of atheist states North Korea. A shinning example of a Godless society. Hey man—I’ll buy you the ticket.

Exactly right. Why else does the Statist react exactly like members of a religion when anyone challenges their dogma (e.g. Climate Change): “DENIER!!!!”

[surfdude12Participant 4103]

Ever5 wrote:

Religion to me is merely a belief in something that is unknown.

Perfectly stated. Religion is merely belief and thus can’t be known by definition. That goes for any belief. If the weather forecast tomorrow is 90% chance of rain, then I believe it will rain – do I know it will rain? Can I prove it will rain? Of course not, belief and knowledge cannot co-exist by definition. Then tomorrow when it does rain, and I know it is raining, would I say I “believe” it is raining? No, since I know its raining at that point. But many (not all) Athiests don’t understand this basic difference in the meaning of knowledge and belief.

[X11Spectator 4520]

Problem with parroting the communism /atheism schtick is Stalin etc never fought or killed anyone in the name of atheism.

You might as well say stalin & Hitler had moustaches therefore moustaches cause communism.

It’s logically ridiculous.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Are you here to recommend a book or to hang on my dick some more than you already do, oh yeah and with that said, get off my dick.

I VERY SERIOUSLY want to try and understand how so many people can believe in something that is so obviously man-made fabricated bulls~~~. I just can’t wrap my head around it. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I chimed in. I want to know how Christians can reconcile in their own mind that it has been clearly shown that their god and their religion is a complete man-made fabrication.

And reference bashing Atheists, you don’t seem to realize that you’re an Atheist also when it comes to believing in all the countless other gods that came before your current Christian god. You like to slam Atheists yet the only difference between you and me is that I just happen to not believe in one more god than you…

[Cú ChulainnParticipant 3910]

There are aren’t many atheists in foxholes.

[AutoliteParticipant]

X11 wrote:

Problem with parroting the communism /atheism schtick is Stalin etc never fought or killed anyone in the name of atheism.

Theists tend to forget about all the killings and slaughter done in the name of religion. Go figure. That’s why I try not to even go there…

[X11Spectator 4520]

surfdude12 wrote:

Perfectly stated. Religion is merely belief and thus can’t be known by definition.

Most believers here say they know god is real.

We have good reason to make probabity estimates on weather. Your comparison of weather and god belief is pretty absurd.

[surfdude12Participant 4103]

Autolite wrote:

I VERY SERIOUSLY want to try and understand how so many people can believe in something that is so obviously man-made fabricated bulls~~~.

You just contradicted yourself. If you “very seriously” wanted to try and understand another’s belief, you would be open minded about it instead of declaring it “obviously man-made fabricated bulls~~~”

That’s just plain self-contradiction, we don’t need to offer any proofs or articles whatsoever.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Cú Chulainn wrote:

There are aren’t many atheists in foxholes.

Google ‘MAAF’ (Military Atheists And Freethinkers) or just ‘Atheists in Foxholes’. They’ll actually give you the names of Atheists who fought for their country…

[X11Spectator 4520]

Cú Chulainn wrote:

There are aren’t many atheists in foxholes.

Probably because they are out fighting the enemy to survive and not sitting in a foxhole praying for imaginary skydaddy to save their ass.

[surfdude12Participant 4103]

X11 wrote:

Most believers here say they know god is real.

Prove it.

[Ever5Participant 1008]

Guys. I don’t care about God right now. I got plenty of beliefs on God. That’s not what I am talking about. This whole thread is turning into some Aetheist vs. Religion, and has nothing to do about morality.

Now if an Aetheist book is going to help me develop a better morality, great, but please explain to me why it’s going to help me develop a better and more useful morality. Because everything I’ve seen on Aetheism is mostly just bickering about how their is no god… That’s not going to help me. And the whole argument about the bible being written by man. Who cares, if it has useful ideas in it, which I’ve said it does when translated from the original greek, yeah it’s got some useful ideas.

“USEFUL”. Does anyone have anything that is USEFUL, USEFUL ideas. Ideas that can lead to a better and more fulfilling life.

And to you guys who have already recommended stuff, like Hippo and what not. I’ll be looking into that stuff, and thanks.

This argument on GOD or No GOD, I don’t see how that is useful for my life. If it is, please explain to me why beliving there is no god, how is that going to help me live a good life?

I don’t believe that God really has anything to do with me as an individual, basically I’m here and I gotta figure it out on my own. I certainly believe in God, but I don’t believe it’s a personality, as in something that can judge me. However I do believe in eternal existence, an ongoing experience of life that is never ending. So for you Aetheist, that’s great and all, but even if there was no god or no eternal never ending experience of life, I don’t see how believing there is no god is going to help make my life a better, happier, and more fulfilling life.

God/No God, It’s irrelevant to the idea of “useful” morality.

Truth has no place to live in the mind of a woman.

[X11Spectator 4520]

surfdude12 wrote:

Autolite wrote:

I VERY SERIOUSLY want to try and understand how so many people can believe in something that is so obviously man-made fabricated bulls~~~.

You just contradicted yourself. If you “very seriously” wanted to try and understand another’s belief, you would be open minded about it instead of declaring it “obviously man-made fabricated bulls~~~”

That’s just plain self-contradiction, we don’t need to offer any proofs or articles whatsoever.

If the bible wasn’t written down by men how was it made??

Of course it is manmade, what are you talking about??

Christians even name the men that write each part.

[AutoliteParticipant]

surfdude12 wrote:

You just contradicted yourself. If you “very seriously” wanted to try and understand another’s belief, you would be open minded about it instead of declaring it “obviously man-made fabricated bulls~~~”

No contradiction here. I want to know why Christians believe in something that has been shown to be man-made bulls~~~. It’s a legitimate and straight forward query.

Watch the Carrier video and you tell me…

[surfdude12Participant 4103]

Ok enough of the God/Athiest crap.

[X11Spectator 4520]

Are the theists saying the bible wrote itself??

Now if bibles write themselves I doubt there would be atheists.

We wouldn’t have thousands of versions of the bible either if a god wrote it.

[ZarathustraParticipant 2246]

If you are reading Beyond Good and Evil I would recommend On the Genealogy of Morals by Nietzche. Beyond G&E is the book that outlines a new philosophy and morality as a consequence of the ideas discussed in The Genealogy of Morals. I would also recommend Freud’s “The Future of an Illusion” in the same vein.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Autolite your a lot dumber than you think you are.

I don’t claim to be particularly brilliant. You really don’t need to be all that smart just to have a simple grasp of the obvious. And you’re still avoiding the issue…

[ZarathustraParticipant 2246]

Atheism is certainly not a religion: it is the repudiation of religion.

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