[ExI] "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoyyour life."

[Stefano Vaj]

On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Gary Miller <aiguy at comcast.net> wrote:

> It is as ridiculous to stereotype believers just as it is ridiculous to
> stereotype
> ethnic groups.   The people who strap bombs to themselves and blow
> themselves
> up in the name of their beliefs are certainly not hypocrites, misguided by
> our
> standards of course but they are sacrificing themselves for their beliefs.


I fully agree.

By the way, it sounds as too quick a concession to me the acceptance of the
language according to which monotheists would be "believers" as if the rest
of the world would be "belief-challenged".

Most of the rest of humankind does have factual beliefs - even though of
course not immune to revision whenever new evidence comes along - as well as
political, aestethical, ethical beliefs - which are instead not exposed to
factual refutation, and which for the interested party may well be worth
dying for as well as it is the case for a monotheist fighting for the true
religion or the coming of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

At best, all we can say is that an atheist hero expects to pay a higher
price from accepting his own death, since post-death rewards are usually not
part of its belief system. But even there the contribution he brings to some
super-individual values or causes, or the moral satisfaction of consistency
with his perceived duties, is obviously rewarding him enough.

Stefano Vaj
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