With No Superior Moral
Dictator, Why Not Kill?
Bryant Adams

Graphic Rule

From: "Positive Atheism Magazine" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: "Bryant Adams"
Subject: Re: Info check
Date: Friday, February 16, 2001 7:48 PM

Why you choose not to kill is a philosophical question, not a statistical one. Why they would ask could be simple curiosity, but an almost unseen and unspoken bigotry underlies their question.

I like to turn it around and throw it back at them: What does the Christian religion have that is not obtainable from other sources? Since you are an atheist, the discussion must be in terms that both sides agree are valid, so no fair for them to invoke concepts such as "the Holy Ghost" or anything else magical -- unless they're ready to examine some facts, including biblical teachings (tribal totem exclusivism, for one; blind obedience, for another) and including a comparison between work done in the name of promoting Christianity versus the scientific method (what is left after "faith" is removed from the picture). Also no fair defining morality as loyalty (obedience) to God regardless of the good or bad one does apart from religious edicts (you might want to bring up the slaughters and genocide commanded in the Hebrew Scriptures or the exclusivism commanded in the New Testament or the subjugation of women mentioned throughout).

At this point, you might wish to pick up Douglas E. Krueger's very short and very abbreviated 1999 book, What Is Atheism? A Short Introduction.

Another book that is pretty thorough and that fills in many of the gaps is George H. Smith's Why Atheism?

If you have any specific questions, send them my way and I'll try to tackle them. However, I not only don't know anything more than what's posted in the article you mention, but would like to see this study done again -- with many more safeguards placed into it than a simple questionnaire sent to prisoners. I will shortly post a piece that goes into more detail, and have attached the files so you can read it in lieu of my having posted it.

Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
Five years of service to
     people with no reason to believe

Graphic Rule

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