I didn't catch this earlier cause I've been trying to skip over some of your posts.
Coggins7 wrote:But why has the god idea been perpetuated? What appeal does it have?
There are multiple psychological advantages for believing in god, and escaping a fundamental aspect of one's personal responsibility is merely one of them. There are other avenues for escaping responsibility, too. I'm not saying there's a one to one relationship between god belief and irresponsibility, but there is certainly a relationship.
And that relationship is precisely what? Many of the greatest minds in human history have noted that disbelief in God is highly correlated with personal irresponsibility, and hence, Dostoevsky's famous quip.
Personal irresponsibility defined as
what precisely? Would that be akin to Gaz's remarks about bed hopping?
by the way, what say you about this quip of Dostoevsky?
It's not God I don't accept, understand this, I do not accept the world, that He created, this world of God's, and cannot agree with it.
You know, the idea that belief in God in some manner diminishes personal responsibility is just a crutch that props up the very real inability of some individuals to deal with the concept of God in an intellectually and psychologically mature manner. Personal responsibility is an individual characteristic that exist in certain people and not in others regardless of belief in God, but when the idea of God is substantially abandoned by a critical mass of a population, say, since the late sixties, there is a reason for the explosion of social pathology in that society as compared to previous eras. It was the nations that abandoned God--Socialist Russia and National Socialist Germany--that brought on the bloodiest century of all human history. It was the attempt to solve all human problems at home through the force of social engineering, social control, and political diktat, without God and without regard to his teachings, that destroyed the inner city black family, and launched the largely successful assault on the family, marriage, sexual morality, individual responsibility, and common civilized decency that now characterize much of American and western society.
I agree that personal responsibility manifests in theists and non-theists alike. I'm so glad you brought in the 60's again, Coggies. What teachings (not of God) of Jesus go against society attempting to help the downtrodden? Charity -- where does that fit into Christ's teachings? What is found in the KJV of the Bible that talk about social control? I'm not familiar with it -- I'm thinking though even outside my understanding of much of Christian ideology that there isn't much in there that mentions a welfare state. :) Aren't we supposed to look to the meek? To those that are suffering? Help those in need? How does this fit into the rights agenda to oppress certain groups and how does that fit with the tradition of INTOLERANCE that was the hallmark of our society pre-60's?
It was the Atheists that gave us Buchenwald, not the Corrie Ten Boom's who suffered within them. It is the Atheists who have given us Socialism, Communism, National Socialism, Fascism (of which the previous three are all forms), the sexual revolution, the drug culture, The anti-human environmental movement and animal rights movement, our 50% divorce rate, our filled to capacity rehab centers, the exponential rises in violent crime beginning in the late sixties, our birth dearth (which threatens the entire western world with potentially catastrophic economic problems well within our life times), our infatuation with the killing of our unborn children; indeed, it is Christians and others of religious conscience who have stood against these things while Atheists have cheered them on.
Well, then it's the theists that give us suicide bombers. Right? :)
What's wrong with the sexual revolution? It's wrong for women to be treated as human beings rather than property of their husbands? It's against God's will that a woman can choose when she desires to have children? God is not too keen on the idea of individuals taking a spacy shroom trip every once in a while? He better talk to some dude that saw burning bushes if he's not happy 'bout psychedelics. :)
I hope you fully perused my earlier link and I expect a frothy creative rhyme when you return.