I wonder if those responsible for this little ‘incident’ had a religious upbringing?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15335899

What happened to their consciences, awareness of others needs and ability to distinguish between right and wrong?

According to the bible it wouldn’t make any difference at all. Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you”

Therefore before god formed Hitler, Stalin, Gacy, Speck, Manson, Bundy, Capone, Dahmer, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden & Jack the Ripper etc… god knew them & what they would do.

That’s a bit awkward..

You are rationalizing, which has been/is the root of your rhetoric.
So next time you do that keep in mind that, as you float your atheist dogma about religion, that is not a good thing.

Dogma
a belief or set of beliefs held by a group which others are expected to accept without argument

Did you not understand this part?

“So next time you feel the need to call an atheist dogmatic, do try to keep in mind that all you’re actually doing is labeling yourself as someone with a “personal unsubstantiated belief” that certain words in the English language should mean different things when you really want them to.”?

Re 316

ZRX61

Yet again, you are wrong. Empathy played no part. It was religion that was required. It was required because I wasn’t born with an understanding and an appreciation of the three values mentioned. Because of the unique circumstances into which I and millions of others was born – the pre-occupations of WW2 – our parents and our teachers had no time and maybe less inclination to instill moral values and concepts.

Like I said: religion isn’t a requirement. That was just the method used for you. A shoe salesman could teach the same stuff without resorting to a contradictory book written 2000 years ago. My parents grew up during WWII, mum’s side was bombed out twice in London. Her dad was a catholic but at no point during either parents life was religion responsible for the person they turned out to be.
Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.
As a source of morality the bible is second only to the koran as the worse possible book used to teach anything even remotely moral. The book is chock full of murder, child abuse, incest, rape, genocide, threats of eternal damnation etc. If it was subject to the same standards as other literature, it would be illegal for children to be allowed anywhere near it. Like this:

Feel free to point out any parts of the warning that aren’t factual….

DOCTRINE, n. [L., to teach.]

1. In a general sense, whatever is taught. Hence, a principle or position in any science; whatever is laid down as true by an instructor or master. The doctrines of the gospel are the principles or truths taught by Christ and his apostles. The doctrines of Plato are the principles which he taught. Hence a doctrine may be true or false; it may be a mere tenet or opinion.

You just proved my point about you not understanding what dogma means. Atheism isn’t taught, it’s the default position. Everyone is a born atheist until adults start lying to them.

Hmm, you speak of dogma but paste doctrine, bizarre.
Does that prove you are dyslexic?

Here, let me post the rest of YOUR post where you laid out the definition YOU most often use…

“Dog”ma (?), n.; pl. E. Dogmas (#), L. Dogmata (#). [L. dogma, Gr. , pl. , fr. to think, seem, appear; akin to L. decet it is becoming. Cf. Decent.]

1. That which is held as an opinion; a tenet; a doctrine. “

In public schools students are usually taught evolution, that God did not create man.
Mentioning creation is forbidden, there is genuine proof of neither.
Now what were you saying?

Mentioning creationism is NOT forbidden in school. It’s talked about in comparative religion. What is NOT allowed is for it to be taught in a science class.
Here’s a simple question for ya in two parts:
Have you ever had a flu shot? Have you ever had more than one flu shot?

btw, you also ignored the part about atheism not being taught & not dogma. Don’t be afraid of critical thinking, it doesn’t hurt.

Why stop there? Don’t teach them a foreign language, until they’re old enough to decide if they want to speak to foreigners; don’t teach them science until they can decide if science is for them; don’t let them play sport, until they can choose which sport they want to do; don’t teach history in case they learn how people have killed each other, and might get the idea.

Because people actually speak different languages, science exists as does sport & history..

Just as we were, in this nation, when witches were burnt at the stake, or drowned; with education, this no longer happens, and it’s to be hoped that other races learn the same message, and quicker than we did, too.

Witchcraft is more superstitious nonsense. They didn’t burn *witches*, they burnt women who were different or didn’t buy into their BS.

And the main tenet of the Christian religion (can’t talk for others, since I’ve never bothered to learn about them) is the Ten Commandments, which tell you to be just that; I do find it rather sad that you don’t want children to be taught that.

Which were stolen from other, older religions…which you’d know from a comparative religion class 😉 & while we’re on the subject, the first 4 or 5 of them just deal with this god thing being a jealous & vindictive jackass & are nothing to do with how you treat other people. You’d also know that 75-80& of the bible is also stolen from those same older/other religions.

If people are going to pick a book to teach morality then maybe pick one that said “oh, btw, owning other people is wrong”. There’s are lots of books written since that have nothing to do with superstitious nonsense & are FAR better for teaching people not to be assholes.

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The Ten Commandments may have been written for the Jews but aren’t they still in the Christian Bible?

Didn’t you get the memo? They get to pick & choose which parts of the OT & NT they follow. Most of the time you bring up some asshole deal that jebus did & they say “Oh, but that was in the Old Testment”.. Then you point out that he wasn’t in the prequel & they get all confused.