Comment on "True Satanism" Is at Least Agnostic or Might Be Against Abortion
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
I've been saying this a lot lately, but the really bizarre thing about people claiming that anti-abortion can only come from religion is that their claims are extremely religious.
Just think about it for a second. When is a new organism created. When the egg is fertilized by the sperm, a brand new set of DNA is produced, and the first cell of this new organism is created. That is the science. We know it.
Then very quickly, that cell turns into two, then four, then eight, eventually you have something with a head, and a nervous system, a beating heart, arms and legs. We know this. It's just true, we can see it on the ultrasound.
By just 10 weeks in, you have something that is moving on its own. I find it very uncompelling to just say that that thing isn't alive, it's sitting there doing things without the mother doing it.
So let's contrast that to the other argument. That there is a holy birthing canal, and the child is not imparted with a soul until after being expelled from the holy birthing canal.
If that doesn't sound super religious, I don't know what does. It definitely blows past all of the actual scientific facts that we know about pregnancy.
squashkin@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
well you also remind me of the problem of atheists being able to have morality, like if there's no God or standard and people can believe whatever, who decides abortion or prolife is moral? what basis besides preference do they have for their view? so again then for them to have a moral high ground or exclusive opinion doesn't seem to make sense, any more than prolifers doing the same.
they believe in and want equality... but wonct accept these opinions as equal.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
I'm a hard atheist (not really a choice, I just don't believe), but if you wipe the slate clean you're going to be stuck with an insurmountable problem: famously you can't get an ought from an is. All the facts in the world won't tell you what first principles of an ethic are.
I had a major existential crisis for a while because an atheistic viewpoint can be nihilistic -- why do we live a good life? Why bother? What does the universe think we should do?
Eventually I recognised there is an innate moral sense I got somehow, but it wasn't until recently that I realized that the innate moral sense comes in part from our culture, which includes religion.
One of the first things I bought for my son was a beautiful leather bound bible and I recently bought him an illustrated children's bible, and I intend to involve our family with the church as he grows up. This is an important part of our culture, and a lot of our fundamental ethical principles are derived from that.
Scruffy_Nerfherder@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
In an off chance you haven't heard of him, you might be interested in Stefan Molyneux
The problem with all morality outside of God is that it will always be beneficial to be just a hair less honest than your competitors. In a naturalistic battle for women and resources, that is all that matters. Overtime then society becomes a race to the bottom as everyone tries to find the optimal level of dishonesty.
If all you have is matter and no spirit, it is impossible to transcend matter because there is no where to go. In a world where life, death, reproduction are all that matter there is no room for honesty.
IMHO, that is the reason secular ethics fall apart. They cannot have absolute divine justice.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
As Jordan Peterson likes to say, even if you don't believe in god, act as if there is a God.
I really love his biblical series, and as my kid grows up I intend to have him watch that as well. It goes to show that the allegory presented in these stories goes much deeper and goes to something that's built into us as humans.