malkie wrote:As a non-believer I have no need to give any god any benefit of anything.
I'm concerned with people who are not apparently mentally ill and who are willing to abdicate their moral sense to a being who appears as a voice in the head telling them to do things that are clearly wrong - e.g., murdering a 15-month-old child.
I really don't see how that has anything to do with the topic at hand (or God for that matter). For example, I personally believe in exterrestrial life and I think a compelling case can be argued for its existence. If someone, who is insane, started doing things like that and said aliens made them do it - would it be reasonable to blame exterrestrial life for it? The same is true here. Your "concern" about crazy people doing "crazy" things is noted, but has nothing to do with the existence of God, aliens, or anything else for that matter.
I can't remember if you have me on ignore or not...
Was Nephi insane?
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden ~The Goddess is not separate from the world-She is the world and all things in it.~
malkie wrote:As a non-believer I have no need to give any god any benefit of anything.
I'm concerned with people who are not apparently mentally ill and who are willing to abdicate their moral sense to a being who appears as a voice in the head telling them to do things that are clearly wrong - e.g., murdering a 15-month-old child.
I really don't see how that has anything to do with the topic at hand (or God for that matter). For example, I personally believe in exterrestrial life and I think a compelling case can be argued for its existence. If someone, who is insane, started doing things like that and said aliens made them do it - would it be reasonable to blame exterrestrial life for it? The same is true here. Your "concern" about crazy people doing "crazy" things is noted, but has nothing to do with the existence of God, aliens, or anything else for that matter.
I don't blame god for anything, any more than I blame ET - as far as I am concerned, neither has been shown to exist. That was not the point of my post - I was talking about "people who are not apparently mentally ill" but who say that they are acting on god's instructions.
ETA: from the PoV of a reasonable society there may be little to distinguish seriously religious people who would act on the say-so of a voice in their head that told them to kill someone from seriously mentally ill people who would do the same for the same reason.
NOMinal member
Maksutov: "... if you give someone else the means to always push your buttons, you're lost."
malkie wrote:I don't blame god for anything, any more than I blame ET - as far as I am concerned, neither has been shown to exist. That was not the point of my post - I was talking about "people who are not apparently mentally ill" but who say that they are acting on god's instructions.
ETA: from the PoV of a reasonable society there may be little to distinguish seriously religious people who would act on the say-so of a voice in their head that told them to kill someone from seriously mentally ill people who would do the same for the same reason.
If God exists and is good, then I think he would see the problem here and never ask anyone to kill for him. It is a dangerous doctrine that gets people killed every year.
malkie wrote:I don't blame god for anything, any more than I blame ET - as far as I am concerned, neither has been shown to exist. That was not the point of my post - I was talking about "people who are not apparently mentally ill" but who say that they are acting on god's instructions.
ETA: from the PoV of a reasonable society there may be little to distinguish seriously religious people who would act on the say-so of a voice in their head that told them to kill someone from seriously mentally ill people who would do the same for the same reason.
Again, it would depend on the circumstances. In general, since we have laws and ways of dealing with disputes, I can't imagine there would be any justification for such an act coming from God. So basically, I'd state pretty firmly that anyone (outside of extraordinary circumstances) should be locked up if they commit such an act in our society.
"You lack vision, but I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on all day, all night.... Tire salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful." -- Judge Doom
No. Since he is a fictional character, so he is not insane, unless the author defines him as such.
PrickKicker: I used to be a Narrow minded, short sighted, Lying, Racist, Homophobic, Pious, Moron. But they were all behavioral traits that I had learnt through Mormonism.
No. Since he is a fictional character, so he is not insane, unless the author defines him as such.
Ahhh! But it was written in the first person. So Nephi is showing us how insane he is without him actually being aware of it!
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden ~The Goddess is not separate from the world-She is the world and all things in it.~
SteelHead wrote:Frank, didn't we have this discussion the other day? You know, where errors in the Gregorian calendar blew your fulfillment of the Daniel math prophecy all to hell?
Where you see proof I saw nothing. If you wish to see errors all over the place so be it. So do I. I see them in different places than you do. Where you place your trust I do not.
Why, when Frantalk posts do I get a mental image of some old Chinese guy saying "Ah Grasshopper" to a young David Carradine.....
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
malkie wrote:I may be wrong, but I think that there are likely only 2 kinds of people who would act on the say-so of a voice in their head that told them to kill someone:
1. seriously mentally ill 2. seriously religious
In both cases the problem is the refusal or the inability to realize that there is something wrong in what the voice-in-the-head is telling them.
I think you'll find that's only one category...
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
