The file-sharing, copyright and piracy debate continues to burn just as aggressively today as it did with the dawn of Napster. When compared to the seemingly endless wars of words over religion, however, it's only just begun, but the opposing sides in both debates seem equally polarized. So, for an argument that will probably never end, let's bring them both together.
Prove gods exist, else the core question is moot.
The first question is made irrelevant by the latter two. If religion in general had helpful things to say, it would be unambiguous. However, due to the intrinsically interpretive nature of religion, it is confusing at best and harmful at worst. Sure, some people might arrive at an answer to a question, but it is not necessarily a rational answer.
Also, the fact that religion can and is often used to turn insane notions like killing people into acceptable behavior (to the religious) should be reason enough to disregard it when seeking answers. Why should we care what religion has to say whatsoever based on this fact?
Lastly, whatever good comes from religion is humanistic in origin. All of the “good” of religion can be found without it, and if it offered anything substantively unique, magic would be real. You get to decide your own morality, and this entire article is doing precisely that, regardless of religious preference.
No it won’t, because again, there’s no objective evidence gods exist. Some might say that we’d find out when we die, but we have no evidence of any particular afterlife existing beyond blind assertions by people who have had near death experiences and religious texts, neither of which agree or should be taken as proof of anything (unless you want to argue that works like the Epic of Gilgamesh were also true tales).
If God(s) has a problem with piracy, let him put a stop to it himself, but I don’t see him stopping real problems like billionaire robber barons and cancer in children, so nobody should feel any concern or worry that there’s some cosmic policeman waiting in the bushes to jump out and catch them.
75% of americans consider themselves religious. Your statement is wrong. Ignoring three quarters of the population because you can’t get over the existence of religion is a personal failure.
Nobody here actually cares about the status of god’s existence. All of us care about piracy. Find somewhere else to stand on your religion soapbox.
Hell, while we’re here, did you even consider reading the article? It makes for some pretty great reading.
I quoted the article. I read it, and it’s stupid. Also, religious ≠ believes in gods. 28% of Americans are “Nones” and growing, and that number includes religious people.
But whether someone cares about the status of gods’ existence matters insomuch as it’s the core precondition of the article. If gods don’t exist, wondering what they think is like wondering what Harry Potter thinks about piracy—interesting as a shower thought, but hardly relevant to making real moral decisions.
If someone is going to bring religion into this community, I’m justified commenting on it.
The number you quoted is practically the same the one i quoted. I’m not sure why you bothered.
I completely missed your quoting the article. My bad. Even the article is saying the premise in the title is silly / unknowable. I was wondering why you were saying the same things the article was; that arguing for piracy using religion is a bit of a mixed bag.
The core question is not moot because more than half the population agrees with the articles core premise. It doesn’t matter if god exists, it matters that most everybody thinks one exists. Using that belief to discuss piracy is not a flawed discussion, and it is not dependent on the actual existence of a god, just the existence of people’s belief in them.
And here’s where we disagree. I suppose I can see this logic, but my issue is that anyone can and will interpret “God’s will” in their own way. How the author presents their case is less reasonable than simply talking about the moral justifications from a secular standpoint. People who rely on God’s opinion that much are likely some variety of fundamentalist and not likely to be engaging in piracy in the first place.
So for the rest, why bother with the religious part, since they’ll just interpret in their own way?