Why are Christmas Eve/Day and MLK National Holidays ?

yeah, but as a religious person, you're on that same boat - here's why.
on what basis does God condemn rape ? if he simply made a random choice and said "thou shall not rape," that means it is ultimately an arbitrary morality.

on the other hand, if God adheres to a higher morality beyond himself and knows rape is wrong, we can simply apply that morality to ourselves and we don't need God to determine morality.

 

The devil, paganism, money, take your pick cuz it certainly aint the most high although thats what they pretend it is. Self deluded.

 

Ah, but have you ever stopped to consider the possibility that perhaps that "higher morality" you speak of actually comes from the God you don't believe in and that the only reason you even recognize rape as wrong at all is because of an innate subconscious connection that your ego attempts to downplay?

Something else you should probably keep in mind; if God is omnipotent, then He not only can but must be able to exist within contradictions. Because anything less would cease to be omnipotence. Thus technically God can dictate rape as wrong while appealing to nothing higher than Himself without it being arbitrary.

This is why man always fails when he tries to challenge God. Because he attempts to make God play by man's rules. You cannot limit what is limitless by definition.

 

-_^ You're really not getting how any of the ten commandments relate to rape?

 

Well, I'm not either.

 

It's not there for the same reason that credit fraud isn't there - it falls under commandments already given. Thou shalt not commit adultery should suffice, but it also says thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt honor the Lord thy God.

Did you read it?

 

So it's okay if a man rapes his wife because that isn't adultery?

Tell that to Lot, god's chosen righteous man in Sodom as he gave his two daughters to strangers to be raped.

 

this higher morality is, again, in question if it was given to me because i must ask what's the basis of it.

it goes back to this prime question - is rape wrong because God says so or is it simply wrong ? your directive towards the notion of higher morality doesn't answer that question - it ducks it. I ask again - do you, personally, believe rape is wrong ultimately because it is wrong, or do you believe rape is wrong to you because you believe God thinks it's wrong ? either way, i contend that we don't need God to determine morality.

God isn't a human and has no idea what being a human being is like in society - he is in no position to make human laws and to judge us anymore than we are to judge him.

Just because a God exists, doesn't mean God should have the right to make our laws and be an overbearing celestial dictator, as Hitchens would say.

 

some holidays are to commerate, some are shut downs to suspend activity, like bank holidays. some exist because no one would show up anyways. you might as rage against snow days.

 

To commemorate a deity of one religion? Yes, banks shut down but not the federal gubmint. Establishing paid federal holidays because "no one would show up" is an uncompelling reason. Let them take a vacation day.

I don't have anything against snow, it isn't trying to impress it's religion on me nor does it take money from my pocket.

 

What if it's beyond your comprehension?

Here's what you're not understanding. You insist that rape is wrong, but you can't explain why it's wrong. You just say that "it's just wrong." But clearly the rapist doesn't think so or he wouldn't be raping somebody. So what are we basing this perception of wrong on, and why doesn't everybody recognize it?

So then how exactly is morality determined? And why does it differ so much from person to person, culture to culture, and era to era?

Uh, if God is omniscient, then technically He does know what it's like being a human being in society because He knows everything by default. You're not even using a real argument here. You're just emotionally upset about the idea of being judged.

Lol! According to who? You? Are you dictating God's rights now? This is getting ridiculous.

 

my answer in red
you're a smart guy, but you're thinking with emotion and fear on this topic

 

We have holidays to stimulate the economy. You get off from work and people go out and spend money. That's all they are designed for. MLK got a holiday because the gub'mint thought it would appease black people.

 

Who's talking about punishment? I'm simply asking you how well you understand what you believe.

I don't disagree with this, actually. But where do you think that "instinct" comes from?

So everybody who commits a crime is a sociopath then? Clearly they must be if we all know the difference between right and wrong but only people without a conscience ever do wrong things. Which must make us all sociopaths since we've all done something wrong at one time or another.

You don't even believe this. Go back and look at your own posts. This is textbook projection.

 

I don't believe sexual assault is wrong. I know it's wrong and therefore I won't ever approve of it because of an internal moral compass. The instinct you speak of is bred in most humans through years of evolution - of females picking males who projected values that helped keep a society going. Now, there are still defective genetic issues which cause some to be born without a clear ability to feel compassion, but that's unfortunately part of evolution.