Anyone got any good books on "useful" morality

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

Well WELL It seems X11 is history CHALLANGED!

Stalin killed over 20 MILLION of his own people and YES in the name of Atheist COMMUNISM
MOA Killed over 30 Million people in the name of Atheist COMMUNISM
Hitler is responsible for the death of 56 million in the name of Atheist SOCIALISM
Pol POT is responsible for the deaths of 4 million people in the name of Atheist COMMUNISM
And then there is North Korea, ETC.

Do you notice a pattern here X11—all of these are societies that rejected God/religion in favor of MAN-MADE morality.

You and you pal like to criticize the Bible as man-made morality BUT THEN YOU MORONS don’t realize that as Atheists you are PROSCRIBING EXACTLY WHAT YOU CONDEMN—MAN-MADE MORALITY GEEEZZZZH pull head from ass.

[Ever5Participant 1008]

Autolite and X11 – please guys, your comments are not relevant to the discussion of useful morality. It’s just nonsense bickering.

Unless you can explain to me how “The God Delusion” is going to help me develop a useful “morality”, I don’t see how anything you’ve mentioned “at all” is relevant to this discussion.

USEFUL MORALITY – that’s what I’m looking for.

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

[Anonymous 7]

OP idk if this fits your criteria but I think it might.

The Unfettered Mind
writting of the Zen Master to the Sword Master

It is not a very large book but pretty interesting.

Amazon

[X11Spectator 4520]

Pete is comprehension challenged. They killed political opponents that challenged them.

They did not kill anyone in the name of no belief in a god….hilarious.

Unlike theists, where they kill in the name of their god, for god etc.

This useless god is incapable or lacks morality to ever stop war.

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

Ever5 wrote:

Unless you can explain to me how “The God Delusion” is going to help me develop a useful “morality”, I don’t see how anything you’ve mentioned “at all” is relevant to this discussion.
USEFUL MORALITY – that’s what I’m looking for.

But they have answered it–clearly: IF it feels good do it! And whatever you decide is “right” at the moment IS right…and whatever you decide is wrong in the next moment IS wrong. (At least for the moment)

[AutoliteParticipant]

Why don’t you start a thread on it Autolite instead of taking a s~~~ on somebody else’s.

You brought the ‘Bible’ into this thread and my posts relate directly to that. A legitimate reply to your claim is not “taking a s~~~”.

You’re just getting p~~~y because I raised an issue that you’re unable to reconcile…

[ZarathustraParticipant 2246]

To clarify matters I would be helpful to introduce a new field of inquiry: Epistemology, which is the study of knowledge. It turns out knowledge is actually really easy to define and has been so defined since the Greeks. Knowledge is a TRUE JUSTIFIED BELIEF. Epistemology is mostly concerned with the study of Justification, since of the triad it is the most difficult to define.

Regarding your weather example…. Imagine a weatherman has a 100% accurate history of making forecasts…. (I know an unrealistic example but assume for the sake of argument I am using your example) if I hear his weather forecast for rain and come to believe it will rain tomorrow on account of his forecast and does actually rain I can be said to have “Known” it would rain.

This is a bad example as weather is not easy to predict but you get the idea. It is possible to know a great many things.

[Ever5Participant 1008]

@zarathustra – I’ll check out Genealogy of Morals by Nietzche. Thanks!

On the idea of aetheism not being a religion. Getting off topic again. It is religion simply because it has a way of explaining existence itself, big bang, etc. There is no personality, yet there is existence, which there for express there is a god by my definition of God. A force in which existence is created or sustained. I don’t personally believe god is a personality at all, for all I know it could be a computer and this is a simulation, no personality, just a force that sustains existence. God or No God, it’s not really important to me.

I personally believe that in our eternal existence, we take on new forms, constantly evolving, and part of one’s evolution of eternity is that of Aethism, it’s just a phase just like all other forms of religion. Just a phase, a form, a perception that one takes on during their eternal expression, all of them being temporary. So I have nothing against Aethiesm, except most Aethist are constantly bickering about how there is no God. It’s the bickering that I find annoying. As far as the religion itself, I see it no more and no less valuable than any other religion.

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

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

Wrong again X11–they were political opponents WHY? OHHHH because they didn’t buy into COMMUNISM AND the central THESIS OF COMMUNISM is the rejection of GOD and the Supremacy of the state: Thanks for making my point for me even if you cannot understand it.

I’m still waiting to hear how/why your man-made morality is superior to the claimed man-made morality of the BIBLE. Why is your man-made morality better?

[AutoliteParticipant]

So you just admitted your not smart, f~~~ing dumbass.

And you’ve just shown that you’d rather make repeated and continuous ad-hom attacks rather than address a legitimate issue…

[ZarathustraParticipant 2246]

While the “God Delusion” is about atheism it is also about Critical Thinking. I think by reading the book you can improve your critical thinking and make better judgments concerning which arguments, regarding any topic, are persuasive and which are not. If you are looking for practical moral reasoning I would suggest the field of American Pragmatism (see William James)

[Ever5Participant 1008]

@Zaratusra – Thanks! ” I think by reading the book you can improve your critical thinking and make better judgments concerning which arguments, regarding any topic, are persuasive and which are not. If you are looking for practical moral reasoning I would suggest the field of American Pragmatism (see William James)”

That opens my interest. And I can see how that can be Useful. Thanks!

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

[ZarathustraParticipant 2246]

Jeez… if we are going to start taking sides and counting the dead what about:

The Crusades

The Spanish Inquisition

The Second World War and the Holocausts (Lost of Jews i.e. religion killed there)

The Armeninan Genocide of Christians by the Turks.

I could go on and on but I always find this idea of Atheist States being the purveyors of death really odd… more people have been killed in the name of religion than anything else.

BTW: I am if anything a libertarian and not a communist or anything and as an atheist and I certainly don’t condone Mao or Stalin.

[surfdude12Participant 4103]

Zarathustra wrote:

Regarding your weather example…. Imagine a weatherman has a 100% accurate history of making forecasts…. (I know an unrealistic example but assume for the sake of argument I am using your example) if I hear his weather forecast for rain and come to believe it will rain tomorrow on account of his forecast and does actually rain I can be said to have “Known” it would rain.

This is a bad example as weather is not easy to predict but you get the idea. It is possible to know a great many things.

No, that makes sense.

Its like if my car breaks down, I ask you “Zarathustra, do you know the name of a good mechanic, who does a good job for good price?” And you give me a name, I take it to him, but at that point I’m only acting on belief. I don’t know he’ll do the good job for good price, I just believe based on what you told me.

BUt then let’s suppose he does do good job for good price and then a few years later I need another mechanic, at that point I won’t need to ask anyone where to go. I ‘ll go straight back to that guy and I won’t go on belief – I’ll go on knowledge that he’ll do good job at good price since its a justified belief.

I think the exact same thing applies when one is selecting a morality/spiritual/prayer approach. When they first pick it, they may ask around (acting on belief), but once they pick it and act on it and get positive results, then when they go back to it, they’re not just acting on belief but on knowledge (justified belief)

[X11Spectator 4520]

Ever5 wrote:

On the idea of aetheism not being a religion. Getting off topic again. It is religion simply because it has a way of explaining existence itself, big bang, etc. There is no personality, yet there is

Atheism is a lack of belief in Gods. It does not attempt to explain the big bang or whatever.

Dam why is a basic definition so hard for people.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Ever5 wrote:

Autolite and X11 – please guys, your comments are not relevant to the discussion of useful morality. It’s just nonsense bickering.

The Bible and by default religion were brought into this thread and you didn’t challenge the relevance then. If there’s a rule that says counterpoints to posts about the Bible and religion are not permitted, I’ll comply…

[X11Spectator 4520]

Pete you ask me to answer why manmade morals are better. what other morals are there beside man made ones??

What am I comparing man made morals to??

[Cú ChulainnParticipant 3910]

There are also no libertarians in crises.

[PistolPeteParticipant 27143]

Zarathustra wrote:

more people have been killed in the name of religion than anything else.

Actually that is not true. In the last century over 200 million people died as a result of wars with socialist and communists. The entire world population didn’t even reach 200 million until the year 1100 ad. So all these claims about the past and people being killed in the crusades et al and equivocating it to the deaths in the last century is nonsense.

[ZarathustraParticipant 2246]

Exactly! And a much better example! If you have a mechanic who has fixed your car many times and the cars of your neighbours many times and he tells you the funny noise you are hearing are he result of the timing belt needing replacement you an say that you “Know” the timing belt needs replacing because your belief was arrived at through a process that has yielded truthful beliefs in the past. You can say you are “justified” in believing the timing belt is the problem and hence know it. This is called testimony, and most of our beliefs, except those arrived at through direct sensory impressions are through testimony.

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