Does Religion Make People Moral?

Quote: FrGamble

It is like a good teacher who starts teaching math where the students are at. To jump into calculus is meaningless. To first learn addition and then multiplication tables is the only way someone will learn.

Quote: Mosca

Quote: FrGamble

Quote: Nareed

So you do keep torturing witches, heretics and infidels before you burn them at the stake?

I really thought that was no longer common practice in your organization, and quite frankly I'm not pleased at all to know it still goes on.

I never have done any of the things you mentioned. It was also never a common practice in the Church and our saints and other holy men and women constantly preach against it. It does go on still in modern ways but the Catholic Church, Christians, or others considered infidels are the victims.

You are thinking of yourself, and your own branch of Christianity. To this day there are people using Christianity to justify racial dominance and slavery. And while not race related, in Ireland Catholics and Protestants fought for years rather than listen to what their god preached.

That is the whole point of the article, that being religious does not make someone moral: they will bend their religion to justify their beliefs rather than alter their beliefs to fit what their religion preaches.

Quote: beachbumbabs

There are those that teach or condone killing infidels for no other reason than not believing in the same faith, for instance. Not just Muslim sects, either.

Quote: Deuteronomy 13:7-15

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

Quote: Deuteronomy 17: 1-5

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant, And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel: Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

Quote: FrGamble

These passages refer to Jews who either entice other Jews to sin against God or Jews who blatantly and explicitly live contrary to God's law and may entice others to do so.

Quote: Deuteronomy 2:32-35

When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, the Lord our God delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. But the livestock and the plunder from the towns we had captured we carried off for ourselves.

Quote: Wizard

Okay, how about this one then:

Quote: FrGamble

When you are a small force surrounded by enemies, when they attack you then you hit back hard.

Quote: FrGamble

I think this may be in some ways akin to the current mentality of the Israeli army. When you are a small force surrounded by enemies, when they attack you then you hit back hard.

Quote: Wizard

Yes, but the women and children too?

Quote: petroglyph

Has someone attacked Israel or Israeli occupied territory?