151–160 of 183 posts
I, personally, don't have a hole in my life where religion should be. I know people that do, many of them come from religious backgrounds and seek something to replace the religious structure that used to be in their lives. But I .... just don't.
We already have plenty of secular communities. Hacker News, sports fans, standup comedians, book clubs, students in college, nerdfighters, groups organizing around hobbies and interests, groups of friends. Community forms not because religion has something sepcial about it, but because people tend to form communities around any subject they are interested in. Just because religion used to be there, doesn't mean we ha…
As someone who is deeply involved in a church I feel your comment illustrates the problem. You appear to think you have a greater depth of relationship/community than you do. I have noticed that the set of values is very much the binding force that holds, at least the church community that I am part of, together. I have very different interests with the people I have most to do with, but we live by similar moral code…
True, though tightly woven communities have many implicit rules, sometimes explicit, that can govern anything from sexuality to what you wear and where you live. Individualism allows a broader definition of who you are and what you can align with at the cost of a tighter support network.
I feel that the increase in acceptance and support of people with different gender identities and sexuality is a direct result of individualism. The same applies to feminism. Even people who would ordinarily feign a religious belief because flipping the bird at the pastor and screaming I'm an atheist would not only affect their relationship with that person, but their whole community. They'd be an outcast, just as the feminist would lose the support of those who had accepted their assigned gender roles and rules.
Humanity has become more liquid but lacks a deep connection to their neighbor as a result. Everything has a positive and negative side.
Boy, that list looks pretty similar to the principles of Unitarian Universalism (full disclosure, born and raised). The suggestions are good but if we look at the history of the Unitarian Universalism it was heralded by various scholars as the secular religion for the coming enlightened future. None of that has happened and the fastest growing religious communities these days are fundamentalist, evangelical Christian…
They're nice enough people, I suppose--I've been meaning to get out to a service myself--, but they do seem to be a little on the urbane mid/upper class side of things.
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The four-way test doesn't seem archaic at all. Why do you say that?
Because your average business today doesn't seem to give a shit about truth (see: almost everyone's marketing), fairness (especially to employees), goodwill (externality? what's an externality?) and benefiting all concerned (a third of the companies out there would probably not exist if their founders gave a rat's ass about their effect on society). Call me cynical, but I get the feeling that morality and honor got s…
I thought you were talking about internet businesses!
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Because your average business today doesn't seem to give a shit about truth (see: almost everyone's marketing), fairness (especially to employees), goodwill (externality? what's an externality?) and benefiting all concerned (a third of the companies out there would probably not exist if their founders gave a rat's ass about their effect on society). Call me cynical, but I get the feeling that morality and honor got s…
> … your average business today doesn't seem to give a shit about truth…, fairness…, goodwill … and benefiting all concerned (a third of the companies out there would probably not exist if their founders gave a rat's ass about their effect on society). Call me cynical, but I get the feeling that morality and honor got sacrificed for competitiveness. Internet businesses are a special case… I thought you were talking a…
Environmentalism is one belief which could power future communities. It is something we can all agree is important, something families can get plenty of enjoyment out of, something we can get together on a Sunday morning to work towards, provides a place for music, discussion, a good place for group holiday getaways, a unanimously good cause which is becoming more and more important as world population increases and…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The four-way test doesn't seem archaic at all. Why do you say that?
Because your average business today doesn't seem to give a shit about truth (see: almost everyone's marketing), fairness (especially to employees), goodwill (externality? what's an externality?) and benefiting all concerned (a third of the companies out there would probably not exist if their founders gave a rat's ass about their effect on society). Call me cynical, but I get the feeling that morality and honor got s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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EDIT: To provide context since the parent comment was deleted, they were asking for a logical breakdown of why Jesus would require worship in order to provide salvation. To break it down: God is completely pure (without sin). To be with God (which is what we would call 'salvation') we would also need to be without sin. Obviously, no human is without sin - meaning we could never be with God. Prior to Jesus, we were re…
Objection: Not obvious in the slightest.
Sarcasm aside, though, it's such a wonderful little rhetorical trick to introduce an otherwise indefensible point with the prefix that it is "Obvious" that to let it go unmentioned would be criminal.
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Communities are defined by what they can't do as much as by what they want to do. You can't make sacrifice for something bigger than yourself if the group doesn't demand anything at all. That is, what I believe, the primary problem with Catholicism in the west today - they don't enforce anything. Military has a code. Street gangs have codes. There is something about a shared and enforced set of rules, however inflexi…
The question is whether it is the kind of community that should exist, that you want to be a part of. And the answer is - no, it is not.