Evolution creates ethics. It has been shown that empathy is a powerful way to save and propagate a gene pool. Not only humans have a sense of what is good or bad.

Ethics came from Roman culture and religion which assimilated from Greek culture and religion. When Roman's were taken over by the Christians, Roman religion was turned into "heathenism" and chastised to convert people into Christianity. Look at the original image of the Devil. Horned half man half goat creature. If you look at Roman and Greek culture the Half man Half goat was a celebrated creature who had fun (by drinking, having lots of sex, etc.) Roman religion celebrated sex with out marriage, drinking, etc. These were against christian believe so The church created an image that made the previous religion seem opposite.

Anyways, yes ethics did derive from "religion", just not the religion we see today.

This is at least what I gathered from ethics classes. I was a philosophy minor. Not an expert, but thought I would shed my perspective.

I am a philosophy minor...sorry retarded moment.

thank god no one who plays kdice forums is of asian descent or they would play the racism card that everyone is pinpointing ethics as originating in the western hemisphere. whiteys, meet confucius.

I'm yet to contribute to the religion conversations, so let's stir the pot...

Part A: My beef with organized religions

1 - They require money to operate and people get rich off of it's operation

2 - They require time spent congregating in pointless ceremonies telling stories from fabled books written by men centuries or millenia ago. Time that could be spent doing much more productive things such as keeping our planet clean or teaching our children.

3 - Most religions are very contrdictory in their story telling, for instance, if the story of Noah and his ark are true, then God slayed thousands and thousands of innocent children.(p.s. anyone that tries to give a good reason for these actions in defense of this fable is full of shit......killing kids is killing kids)

4 - Most religions require me to believe in their god in order to reach that faiths "heaven", regardless of the type of life I lead. I could live a good life, be kind to others, give to the poor, raise good children, etc., and not make it into heaven due to my lack of belief. However, a murderer who finds God while in prison and repents his sins has a decent shot of making it through the pearly gates. Bullshit...


Part B: My beef with theism

1 - Theism carries little to no basis in proveable science. The search for answers begins and ends with a "faith" that there is something bigger than us.

2 - actually I can't think of any other beef with theism, but since I started bullet pointing my items I figured it would look cheesy to only have 1 here.

anyone not wanting to read the above, ill some it up, religion = scam, I lolz at life

meh, too lazy to respond to all of your points thrax, but appreciate your perspective.

point 1 tho, concerning people getting rich off of religion. not that i can speak for other religions or congregations, but my church is pretty tight on how they use all the money that is given to them. they go through a self-auditing process to make sure everything lines up with the IRS. and there is a review process as to how the money should be spent / given away. much of it goes to proselytism of foreign nations, much to the pastor's salary and benefits (which is calculated based on the local average salary given our congregation size), much to church maintenance, much to needy people (whether church members or not).

again, i only speak for my church. but i pretty much assume that 90% of southern baptist churches probably act the same way. i highly doubt people get rich off of church tithing. i admit it would be possible, and it probably happens in a few cases here and there...

but lets compare this to the government, which takes a higher cut of our paychecks. yes, the govt provides us with an assload of benefits which i love, but i would hazard the guess that more people get rich off of the govt than off the church. i.e. more corruption there. so i wouldnt knock the church for money sketchiness.

but again, i dont have any facts or figures outside of my personal experience.

Vatican City?

Televangelists?

Hell, CBN is in my backyard here. Rich fuckers...