What is greed??

[Zebraspots]

Quick exercise. To Whom did we appeal to for the dissolution of our relationship with Great Britain? To Whom did we seek protection from when we did so? Who did we acknowledge gave us the right to do so?

C'mon, people. Let's try to at least show pretense of intellectual honesty.

I frequently feel the need to appeal to a higher power when reading your posts - doesn't make them divine! ;-)

 

[elgordoboy]

Quick exercise. To Whom did we appeal to for the dissolution of our relationship with Great Britain? To Whom did we seek protection from when we did so? Who did we acknowledge gave us the right to do so?

C'mon, people. Let's try to at least show pretense of intellectual honesty.

The French

 

[Mango]

Is that really necessary from a moderator?

Oh find another straw man, 6th. I didn't call you names. Are you inferring that Hare Krishnas have no moral compass? You are debating posters views of morality who do not believe in Him. Odd coming from someone who argued with us the virtues of Hitchens book, The Missionary Position- Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. A woman who took a vow of poverty.

 

[Mango]

If you have a conscience, you don't need a higher power to guide you. Empathy is an innate physical property of the brain and is a product of evolutionary neurology. Our survival as a species depends on it. Even animals possess a sense of empathy and kindness to some extent. Belief in a higher power has nothing to do with it. People who let society jerk them around with all kinds of idiotic religious programming don't have a clue about their own natural self. It's not all their fault since they were indoctrinated with this crap when they were impressionable children. In my humble opinion.

You raise a good intellectual argument, however you lose me when you start calling religious beliefs programming and idiotic because you are showing lack of empathy.

 

[6thGen]

Oh find another straw man, 6th. I didn't call you names. Are you inferring that Hare Krishnas have no moral compass? You are debating posters views of morality who do not believe in Him. Odd coming from someone who argued with us the virtues of Hitchens book, The Missionary Position- Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. A woman who took a vow of poverty.

You implied I'm a religious nut. I'm debating the source of morality, questioning where it comes from if it does not come from a higher authority. I believe that Mother Teresa was a poor representative of her faith, and I stand by that. She wasn't Jimmy Schwaggert (sp?), but she had plenty of issues. I'm shocked that the separation of church and state screamers respect her.

 

[LuciferSam]

huh?

I'm just wording natural selection in my own way. You know mutation, natural selection, evoultion.

 

[LuciferSam]

If there were a limited number per capita, as there is, they would thrive, as they have. Full blown sociopath is different than displaying sociopathic tendencies, which is basically a functioning sociopath, but we are getting off topic.

"Morality is a result of our brain's convergence due to evolution. It settles on what's best for the species survival, otherwise the species would die off."

That's not arbitrary?

No natural selection is not at all arbitrry. RTFM

 

[LuciferSam]

Think of a giraffe's neck. Darwin speculated that the food was most abundant and the "market" less competitive for for herbivores at the top of trees, so the giraffes with the longest necks survived and were the most desirable for mating until the trait was ingrained.

I still don't get how an empathetic trait evolved when, while it may help the survival of the species, it hurts the survival of the individual.

Huh! Without the species there would be no individual.

 

[Bob]

Do you really want to get in a quote contest on the Founders and God? (Hint: You don't)

enough deists and agnostics to bring forth the genius of our core system

 

[lerxst]

I'm just wording natural selection in my own way. You know mutation, natural selection, evoultion.

ok. thanks for the explanation