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1. You should try to live a life where you treat others not just the way you would like to be treated, but include how you believe they would like to be treated. This forms the foundation of morality. From which the following activities we agree are unacceptable: inflicting purposeless suffering on others (torture), murder, theft, rape, slavery, genocide, and most examples of dishonesty. In addition, those who break these moral laws should ask and receive forgiveness– that being said, depending on the severity of the infraction, a fair and equitable punishment might be prescribed by society which favors restorative punishment over retributive punishment when possible.

2. Men and women of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, socioeconomic class are all born equal in liberty. Differences exist between people, but these should be used to embrace and lift up one another rather than ostracize people. Bigotry and cruelty is unacceptable.

3. Society should be arranged to enable all persons freedom to express socially defined human rights which include at their essence examples such as; freedom of thought (including religion), expression (including speech), freedom of information (including media and science), power to choose leaders and government, freedom from bondage in the form of any kind of slavery, and freedom to own and exchange property.

4. The world is made better when fundamental needs are met, including clean water, food, and medical care.

5. A love of art over a variety of mediums;including music, painting, drama, film.

6. You don’t have to agree with cultures to appreciate their unique lifestyles. You may even enjoy travelling to foreign places to experience these cultures firsthand.

7. We believe education is a foundational necessity to making a good society. All children should be provided as equal an opportunity to recieve a liberal arts education that is secular in nature in order to prevent one religion being favored over another.

“Foundations” I think some, or most atheists share:

8. This education includes science education. Consequently, only scientific concepts including modern cosmology and Evolution by Natural selection are to be taught. Religious ideas such as intelligent design creationism or first-cause cosmology can be taught in comparitive religion courses.

9. Life’s fulfillment (some or all) is derived by a participation in advancing humane ideals, including advancing a society that encourages all of the included propositions.

10. Knowledge is necessary in order to direct progress. Therefore, scientific pursuits should be valued and encouraged. This includes medicine, biology, sociology, psychology, chemistry, astronomy, and all methods of inquiry that utilize empirical methods to discover and confirm hypotheses.

11. Philosophy is also critical in establishing ethical norms, foundational logic for all above sciences, and mutable worldview that can alter to best comport with reality.

Foundations I feel that some or few Christians and I share:

12. A healthy skepticism and default agnosticism. While I think many Christians embrace skepticism toward other faith-based or mystical claims; it is unlikely that they would apply it to their own worldview.

13. All people should be afforded due process under the law and society. This means social institutions should be afforded to all people regardless of race, gender, sexuality, religious belief, or class. Why is this so low on the list? Because of the continued presence of “blue laws”, the permeation of religious symbology in the United States, an opposition of Homosexual equal rights, and opposition to a secular government.

14. Conclusions made by a critical inquiry into history should be embraced. The consequence of this is often unacceptable for most Christians when it’s applied to their holy texts. However, I have met Christians who prefer to accept a Mythic Christ or compartementalize the historical problems of Christianity.

15. Human relationships are more important than religious differences. That is, when dogma and ethics conflict– choose ethics. For instance, if God tells you to kill children, begin to doubt that whatever you are reading or hearing is really God. If God tells you to hate your family, perhaps you aren’t listening to a moral preceptor. I wonder if this should be higher. I hope that someday it is.

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This essay, “The Pre-Religion, and Pre-Human, Roots of Morality,” is one of the forty-four endnotes in my book “Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer.” See http://www.booklocker.com for free PDF sample chapters.

(This link will bring you right to the page where you can find the PDF file just scroll down to #5: http://search.booklocker.com/search-bl.cgi?q=dialogue+with+a+christian+proselytizer&t=&SEARCH=Search)

My four YouTube channels:

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates – my musician channel

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates – where I discuss the ideas in my book “Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer” (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic)

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 – where I discuss the ideas in my book “Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames” (such as “Why do we have to work?” and “Why do we have to use money?” and “How should we define ‘success’?”)

- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano – where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne’s book of lyrics “Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists.”

Duration : 0:8:26

Technorati Tags: altruism, animals, Ape, atheism, atheist, Bible, Binti, blind, christ, Christian, Compassion, Conflict, cooperation, Creator, De, dialogue, empathy, equality, ethics, evolution, fairness, faith, Frans, God, human, humanity, inequality, Inner, Jainism, jesus, Jua, Kindness, Method, monkeys, morality, natural, Our, power, Pre-Human, Pre-Religion, Primatologist, proselytizer, raw, reproductive, resolution, Roots, Sarah, selection, social, Socratic, struggle, success, survival, values

Duration : 0:2:26

Technorati Tags: atheism, christianity, Cooke, Craig, Dawkins, ethics, Lane, Life, Love, materialism, meaning, morality, nihilism, objective, Richard, subjective, suicide

This essay, “The Pre-Religion, and Pre-Human, Roots of Morality,” is one of the forty-four endnotes in my book “Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer.” See http://www.booklocker.com for free PDF sample chapters.

(This link will bring you right to the page where you can find the PDF file just scroll down to #5: http://search.booklocker.com/search-bl.cgi?q=dialogue+with+a+christian+proselytizer&t=&SEARCH=Search)

My four YouTube channels:

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates – my musician channel

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates – where I discuss the ideas in my book “Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer” (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic)

- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 – where I discuss the ideas in my book “Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames” (such as “Why do we have to work?” and “Why do we have to use money?” and “How should we define ‘success’?”)

- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano – where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne’s book of lyrics “Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists.”

Duration : 0:5:45

Technorati Tags: altruism, animals, Ape, atheism, atheist, Bible, Binti, blind, christ, Christian, Compassion, Conflict, cooperation, Creator, De, dialogue, empathy, equality, ethics, evolution, fairness, faith, Frans, God, human, humanity, inequality, Inner, Jainism, jesus, Jua, Kindness, Method, monkeys, morality, natural, Our, power, Pre-Human, Pre-Religion, Primatologist, proselytizer, raw, reproductive, resolution, Roots, Sarah, selection, social, Socratic, struggle, success, survival, values