What Happens When You Remove Faith

do you spend your weekends beating puppies and drowning kittens? i can't see otherwise how humans being "just another animal" would change how you treat them? just because humans are just animals doesn't make them any less like you or any less deserving of the same deference you show yourself. love your neighbor as yourself doesn't need a god to enforce it. it's just a good thing to do. but selfishness isn't good for you. it reduces your public standing and can result in criminal sanctions. it can seriously harm YOU. and who cares if this shit really matters? how you deal with those around you affects you and affects the world your children will live in. then maybe your problem isn't that if you stopped believing in god you'd think there's less meaning, it's that you already think your responsibility only extends to those you are imediately in contact with. but jesus said that our "neighbors" are anyone in the world who needs our help. your responsibility with or without god is to everyone. everyone.

with od, tigers tend to maim things. why are we talking about this?

um. in mardi gras and riots, there are penalties for the associated behaviors. people are often arrested for public nudity and riot looting etc. the problem here is mass hysteria, also known as extreme herd behavior. this is not an excuse for behavior, but an explaination why ordinary people do crazy things.

i'd like to share with you a little story. where i'm from there's a huge christian academic environment. pensacola christian college (etc). the educational opportunities go from infant day care all the way to graduate school (WARNING: PCC is not an accredited institution).now. this institution is very strict. students of any age are not permitted to be alone with anyone of the opposite sex, regardless of relationship (this may or may not include family members, i'm not sure). students are not permitted to listen to any radio station other than the one put out by the school (including other christian stations in town). students are not permitted to view movies rated above G. students are not permitted to listen to unaproved recorded music. students who go on dates must have an approved chaperone who ensures that the daters do not come within fourteen inches of each other (including hand-holding). women must wear skirts past the knee only and must dress to other specific modesty standards. students are encouraged to and rewarded for spying and reporting on other students to enforce the policies. students who break the policies are expelled (there may be a three strike rule for lesser offenses or a warning system).students leave this institution at various times for various reasons. generally (there are exceptions to every rule), leaving results in massive lifestyle changes. because of the strict environment, students have been unable to develop their own system of personal boundaries. as such, many students, particularly with those who leave for middle or high school, are easily tempted into heavy partying or substance abuse and an expediated sexual experience. i think this is one potential outcome of a realization that god doesn't exist, but i think it would only result from the loss of strict behavioral controls, and not a belief.

or maybe i just responded to you like i responded to other people. i was talking about what your problem is currently, not what your problem might be if there were no god. they certainly wouldn't be "civilized," but it seems that there have been plenty of occasions in which people were raised outside of society. would they be "good"? i dunno. but i entirely doubt they'd get involved with people and then abandon them or work for their own benefit to the detriment of others.but then i don't necessarily agree with either of the basic assumptions purported here. i think that people have the essence of the "universal fuzzy" whatever that may be, but at the same time, i know that people are flawed and often struggle greatly with selfishness. so betwixt this, we have people who are basically torn and whose problems can be aided by guidelines. but your discussion of raising someone out in the woods has nothing to do with failing to keep to a religious standard. if morality can exist purely and appropriately in a combination of primitive altruism and community standards, then that is a fine alternative to god. ditching community standards doesn't help you answer the god question. you can only test one thing at a time. if i stop using acne cream to see if just washing my face is sufficient, i'm not going to stop washing my face as though my skin is somehow magically capable of being bacteria free on its own.

it kind of depends on the idea that some christians (and maybe others) that human beings are all bad all the way to the core and that the only reason they do anything nice at all is because they have jesus. but that's not even demonstrated in the scriptures, even if it's stated. there are plenty of non-christians and non-jews who did good things and of course plenty of christians and jews who did nasty things.i talked to my mom the other day about the "universal fuzzy" and whether it points to a creator or if the idea of a creator points to the "niversal fuzzy." now, naturally we disagreed on whether it necessitates a creator (even though we both believe in it). i defined the "universal fuzzy" as the internal drive to do good things. i don't have a problem with there being two separate internal drives one in either direction (we'l call them c and d). i think we can all say that we are torn, despite our faiths, in working for "fuzzy" or "spiky." spiky may be protective, but it tends to hurt others. while fuzzy keeps us warm and rubs nicely against others but doesn't necessarily protect us. i think it's a personal choice really, cause i know plenty of christians who claim they're phenomenally good and are instead rather spiky, nasty people. i think the solution isn't belief, necessarily, but self-sacrifice, which is what i thought christianity was about. believing in god doesn't mean anything for the choices we make.

i was refering to the "sin nature." besides. just a bit of yeast levens the whole dough.