rationalskepticism.org

Thomas Eshuis wrote:

Stein wrote:

surreptitious57 wrote:Being non judgemental of others
Giving to charity without publicity
The Golden Rule [ also the Silver Rule ]
The Parables [ especially the Good Samaritan ]
Accepting responsibility for all of the wrong one has ever done in their life
Commandments Four to Eight [ more recommendations than commandments ]
The washing of feet [ not the act as such rather what it represents : humility ]

Regardless of whether or not they are original or exclusive to Christianity since that doesnt actually matter

I borrow from Buddhism with reference to all suffering originating in the mind and craving being the cause
Also questioning everything and accepting nothing without scrutiny. And I take from secular philosophy too
with regard to utilitarianism and absurdism. So therefore if some moral wisdom is of value to me I will use
it regardless of its origin which is of no relevance at all beyond simple historical fact far as I am concerned

Opening up the discussion here because atheists discussing the positive merits of Christianity isnt really going anywhere

Also answering this question that atheists get asked usually by Christians : where does your morality come from. To which
my answer is : the same place as yours namely evolutionary psychology which is as least as old as religion if not older and
by many orders of millennia predates Christianity [ and the other big four belief systems as well ]

Understanding evolutionary psychology is essential to human survival today. Some appreciate that; many don't.

We still know pitifully little of the full intersection between anthropology, history, biology, psychology, the chemicals of the brain, expanding connectivity, the instinct to love, the earliest social compacts, human expectations of fairness, the instincts to preserve history and contracts, and the urge to attain stability for future generations. These all involve a seamless web enfolding a perennial primordial urge to make life as safe and as long as possible for everyone around one, not just oneself. Fact is, we currently know zilch about the first expressions of this urge. But the notion that we can never know them is pathetic bullshit. Of course, we fuckin' can. It's just sociopaths with the concentration span of a gnat who masturbate over human suffering who will never fucking admit that the earliest expressions of the urge for survival and interdependent human community are shitting knowable just like the atom proved shitting knowable.

When the urgency for such knowledge gets the typical kneejerk pushback from sociopaths of such a stripe, it also gets diversion tactics from others who are simply idiots with shit like "well, don't you know, people have a herd mentality", which has fuck all to do with both the urge to expand and include more in community and the anterior reasons for humans to band together in the first place. Bleating about herd mentality is just useless shit about effect and never about cause. Fucking yawn. Why IS humanity a social animal in the first place, and why should it be so fuckin' hard to find the first typical expression of that sociality?

Answer: it fucking isn't hard if the shitty axe-grinders will get out of the fucking way and just let the anthropologists, the historians, the textual scholars and the biologists and all the other professionals do their goddamn job.

And they have and we know quite a bit already, one of the major things we know is that social behaviour in herd/group animals is evolutionarily beneficial, as is empathy.