Hey FrGamble!

Quote: FrGamble

Is the novel "White Fang" hidden to you?

Quote: Face

I wouldn't use the word "scary", but I am equally confused that you cannot see outside of the church box.

As an atheist, I wouldn't say my morality comes from "me". Rather, I would use the word "us". I've longed believed in a sort of Naturalism, and I do believe that morality is a natural event. It's tough and arguable when looking just at humans, because humans have created a belief in God and it's hard to separate one from the other. But looking to the animal kingdom at large, I think it's easy and obvious to subscribe to this natural path.

Look to our closest relatives. Monkeys have no God. Even if you believe He created them, there is not one lick of Scripture involving the monkey. It is an animal for us to respect and use, no different than a mule. Yet don't they have morality? Does not a monkey do nice things for those in its family? Protection, the providing of food, grooming, consoling, nursing, petting, hugging, and all sorts of other "nice" things. They care for each other, celebrate with each other, play with each other. Do you not see this as a morality structure? I do. And I can go down the list of upper mammals and find the same. I see the same in them as I do in us. Whether a pack of dogs or a pod of dolphins or a herd of elephants, all social mammals act in similar fashion.

I see us mirrored in them all the time. If a monkey steals a fruit from its own pack, a fight ensues. This weakens that family. Trust is broken, hard feelings develop, injuries occur. The actions of one being weakens the entire unit. Isn't that exactly like us? If one monkey just doesn't tow the line, it is forced out of its society and left to fend for itself. Sound familiar? And while most monkeys are chill and spend their time grooming and playing and sharing food, if another family of monkeys gets too close and starts threatening the other family's resources, there's a hell of a fight. All the able bodied monkeys form a battalion and systematically attack the interlopers until they flee or until they are dead. Again, sound familiar?

Sure, some of my morality comes from "God". I have people in my family who follow Him, and as they have His lessons, so have they given them to me. But in that same fashion, so too has some of my morality come from Aesop's Fables. Some from The Cosby Show. Some from Little League Football. Some from Steven King's The Dark Tower. And some from simple personal experience. I have learned that doing good for others, for "the group", is more beneficial to me personally than things I have done purely for the benefit of me. Being nice, being "moral", is the best play. And so this atheist has morals.

That's not sick. It's purely natural. And a bit beautiful.

Quote: FrGamble

You should read it again and we can talk about something else for a change.