I am saying that ethics is a subset of theology. Politics also is a subset of theology. All truth is God's truth. We have been created in the image of God. That is why murder is wrong. You might know "instinctively" that murder is wrong without thinking about the fact that you have been created in God's image, but the reason you think so still comes down to the fact that you have been created in God's image - whether you think about that or not.
25 comments
1st sentence: Wrong!
Ethics exist in spite of theology.
2nd sentence: Wrong!
Christian theology, ie. the words of Jesus, contradict your statement. "Render unto Caesar..."
3rd sentence: Wrong!
Truth is, at best, subjective.
4th sentence: Wrong!
Show proof, please. Having never seen god, or heard him/her/it, no-one can say that. Show me god, and I will judge for myself if I share his image.
5th sentence: Wrong! Murder is wrong, period.
6th sentence: Wrong! (see 4)
Your basic premises are wrong, therefore all subsequent extrapolations are also wrong, having no basis in fact.
Now, go piss up a rope and suck the wet end!
No, Danny. Theology may be a subset of ethics, but not the other way around. And, God and truth have nothing to do with each other.
Ethics don't come from God, but from societal conditioning and introspection.
Granted, religion inevitably comes up no matter which social science you happen to pursue.
However, what this person fails to realize is that the majority of belief systems the world over prohibit murder under certain circumstances and that many groups have an internal system of government. These two bits alone contradict his argument.
"We have been created in the image of God. That is why murder is wrong."
Actually, this is a contradiction. According to the OT, God is one of the biggest murderers in history.
It's more like saying:
"We have been created in the image of Donald Trump. That's why money is wrong."
@Jesus
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
THAT is why murder is wrong. That's why ANYTHING wrong is wrong. If Jesus had it right then why can't you?
Theology's unsubstantiated faith based naked assertions used in circular reasoning, as so cleverly applied by you above, is one of the main reasons that somewhere after the Middle Ages we stopped regarding all other sciences as a subset of theology.
Meth...
First, there's no evidence that Jesus ever WROTE anything.
Second, what Jesus supposedly said, in the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, was:
"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
The "Golden Rule" as you have presented it here is actually closer to an early English translation of Socrates. From answers.com:
"This so-called golden rule is stated in just about every ancient writing about behavioral precepts (including the New Testament, Talmud, Koran, and the Analects of Confucius). Among the earliest appearances in English is Earl Rivers' translation of a saying of Socrates (Dictes and Sayenges of the Philosophirs, 1477): 'Do to other as thou wouldst they should do to thee, and do to none other but as thou wouldst be done to.' It is so well known that it is often shortened."
If Socrates had it right, then why can't you?
Well, actually gods are more like an invention of mankind, so God/Allah/JHWH/Zeus/..., gods for short, are created by men, in the image of themselves, not the other way round.
hmm..wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.
This is a 100% fail. Great job Dan.
"I am saying that ethics is a subset of theology. Politics also is a subset of theology."
My five years of studying ethics and political philosophy at university says otherwise. About all the theology we have dealt with has been either historical or the idea of Divine Command theory, and the latter mostly just to present the Euthyphro argument.
Theology doesn't necessarily mean Christianity, ya know. We might have been created in the image of Ra, of Odin, of Quetzalcoatl, of Brahman, of Zeus...
Murder is wrong because it is ending the life of another human being. That person does not get to live any more, his or her family will be devastated, his or her friends will also be devastated. It has nothing to do with in whose image the person was created. If anything she or he was created in the image of her or his parents.
"I am saying that ethics is a subset of theology. Politics also is a subset of theology. All truth is God's truth. We have been created in the image of God. That is why murder is wrong. You might know "instinctively" that murder is wrong without thinking about the fact that you have been created in God's image, but the reason you think so still comes down to the fact that you have been created in God's image - whether you think about that or not."
The above verbal diarrhoea can (and should) only be dignified by just one word of reply:
Bollocks.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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