"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Today's Must-Read: Told Ya So

More and more people are now subscribing to the idea that belief in God is not necessary to be a moral person, according to Pew Research:

Most U.S. adults now say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values (56%), up from about half (49%) who expressed this view in 2011. This increase reflects the continued growth in the share of the population that has no religious affiliation, but it also is the result of changing attitudes among those who do identify with a religion, including white evangelical Protestants.

Surveys have long shown that religious “nones” – those who describe themselves religiously as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – are more likely than those who identify with a religion to say that belief in God is not a prerequisite for good values and morality. So the public’s increased rejection of the idea that belief in God is necessary for morality is due, in large part, to the spike in the share of Americans who are religious “nones.”

There's more, including all sorts of neat visuals.

This just points up what I've been saying for a long time: morality is hard-wired, a function of our existence as social animals: we take care of each other. That's not that same as obeying a set of arbitrary rules cherry-picked from the tribal taboos of Bronze Age Middle Eastern nomads.

Via Joe.My.God., who includes a reaction from the Catholic League (a/k/a Bill Donohue and a fax machine). (Warning: Donohue's diatribe comes close to word salad.)



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