Do we need god to be moral?
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- Published on Saturday, 09 January 2010 12:00
- Written by John Draper
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Christians often say that without god we would be immoral - that our ethics system comes from god. This is one of the major debates about religion yet even some theologians do not accept this idea. FORA TV of the City University of New York (CUNY) sponsors discussions open to the public and publishes them on the Internet. An earlier discussion on "What is religion" featured atheist philosopher Dan Dennett and can be seen here. The most recent discussion was on December 7, 2009 on the subject of "Varieties of non-belief". In keeping with an objective of this site to keep articles and videos short, shown below is an excerpt from that event where philosopher Colin McGinn, and theologian Denys Turner talk about Does Morality need god? or as is more commonly asked, Does morality come from god?
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Canadian Imams issue fatwa against attacks on Canada, US
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- Published on Saturday, 09 January 2010 04:00
- Written by John Draper
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Twenty Imams, mostly from Canada but also the U.S., issued a fatwa Friday condemning any extremists or terrorists who would launch an attack on the United States or Canada. The 20 imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada said this marked the first fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the U.S. to be attacks on the 10 million Muslims in North America. See the full text here.
"In our view, these attacks are evil, and Islam requires Muslims to stand up against this evil," the imams said in their fatwa.
"These terrorist attacks and extremist attacks on Canadian or American soil is, in fact, attack on Muslims. Because we are part of this society. This is my home, and if anybody attacks on Canada, in fact, attacks on my home," said Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, an imam in Calgary and the first signature on the fatwa.
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The power of prayer
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- Published on Thursday, 07 January 2010 03:02
- Written by John Draper
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Many people believe that prayer works - but can they prove that? Maybe they believe something that's simply not true. I believed in Santa until I was 7! And in fact I believed in the Catholic God till I was about 28 (yes I know, I'm slow - actually stubborn is a better description). I'm not talking here about prayer helping your peace of mind - meditation can do that and no god is involved. A good sleep will also work wonders so why do we need prayer? Good question. There are a number of articles on this site that discuss the subject but videos are easy to follow.
Gay Marriage
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- Published on Friday, 08 January 2010 03:04
- Written by John Draper
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It seems everyone has an opinion on gay marriage - it's hard to be neutral on this subject.
Most atheists (including me) take the view that to be gay (or not) is a personal thing and should not be subject to discrimination or laws governing it. Let me analyze this further.
Sex is an appetite similar to the appetite for food and is also necessary for perpetuating the species just like food is needed to stay alive. Some people are vegetarians but there is no discrimination against that practice; similarly, some people are homosexual but some cultures and some people feel it is wrong. The difference between the two appetites is that sex is part of the reproductive cycle but won't work if the sex is homosexual. This explains why in ancient times, churches made homosexual sex taboo to ensure enough children were born to make up for losses through disease and the perpetual wars.