Re: The substantial cost of theistic morality
Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:16 pm
Internet Mormons, Chapel Mormons, Critics, Apologists, and Never-Mo's all welcome!
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Lets see, a person has lots of bullets coming at them and the fellow beside him has a big hole blown in their head do they think, I look forward to returning home so I better watch out or do they , OMG give me strength!doubtingthomas wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:18 pm"Study: World War II Soldiers Relied on Prayer, Not Returning Home to Loved Ones, for Motivation"
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/20 ... motivation
Is this a joke?doubtingthomas wrote: ↑Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:16 pmReferences please. Atheists who believe in the supernatural don't count.
Uh-huh. So if I produce a battle-hardened atheist, I'm going to have to prove to you somehow that deep inside he did not have a belief in " supernatural powers, "energies", and reincarnation", or it won't count as evidence for my assertion thatdoubtingthomas wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:49 amSome atheists do believe in supernatural powers, "energies", and reincarnation.
Well, that goalpost moving also applies to you. Each time a 'religious' person voluntarily risks his life in battle, you have to prove to me that he was not just a person who was (say) brought up as a Catholic and attended church because his family did that kind of thing, but really didn't believe in that stuff. And so on.
On your rules, your question can never be given an evidence-based answer. Fine by me.doubtingthomas wrote: ↑Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:37 pmWould you agree religious people are more likely to enlist in the military and risk their lives?
If religious apologists are going to claim the religious men in war, then they have to take the 9/11 hijackers as well.Physics Guy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 1:45 pmClaiming that religious people are more likely to risk their lives is not claiming that all religious people risk their lives readily, or that only religious people ever take risks.
And although just going to church every Sunday with the family probably won’t count for much under fire, it seems pretty likely that someone who truly believes they will enter paradise at death would be less reluctant to die. One might doubt that many people really have such strong faith, but the if-then proposition is hardly implausible.
Testing it empirically would indeed be hard, though. High risk of death won’t pass ethics review. And of those who have taken high risks of death under natural circumstances, most are dead.
How much readiness to risk one’s life is a good thing is another question. I wouldn’t want to share a slit trench with a coward who was going to leave me to do all the shooting, but I also wouldn’t want to share it with a fanatic who was going to get us both killed.
As Patton remarked on 31 June 1944Physics Guy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 1:45 pmHow much readiness to risk one’s life is a good thing is another question. I wouldn’t want to share a slit trench with a coward who was going to leave me to do all the shooting, but I also wouldn’t want to share it with a fanatic who was going to get us both killed.
.No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country
Which links to:Over in the largely atheist angry ex-Mormon region that I sometimes call the Peterson Obsession Board, one commenter has demanded that he be shown an atheist suicide bomber. (Plainly, he assumes that there are none.) I’m happy to suggest some reading for him:
“Polemical atheist crusader, meet the facts about suicide bombing!”