Can you be good without god?

This is one of those questions that have no short answer, as it depends who the questions is posed to.

The first group believes that all morality originates from god. God has decided what is good and what is bad. To these people, it is inconceivable that goodness can exist outside the realm of a theistic world. To them, all goodness is sourced at god, and all evil, from the Satan. And those that are good without believing in god, are so because they have learned morality from their environment of theistic neighbors.

Then there are those that have a theistic, secular bent of mind. To them, man can be good without a god to prescribe moral behavior. They are convinced that goodness is part of human nature, just as evil is. But choosing the right path them just gets them closer to god, their definition of ultimate reality.

The third group of people believe that morality does not require the existence of god for they have arrived at the realization that morality and altruism is a by-product of evolution. They have observed that society has prescribed certain coded of conduct to coexist peacefully. And therefore, each society has derived specific codes that might seem strange to other societies, and hence the concept of relative morals. Cannibalism might seem extremely immoral to the west, but seem perfectly natural to the tribes of Java and Sumatra. These tribes consider the World Wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of people to be a crime.

Atheists aren't that bad

Came across this video, which is very much along the lines of what I said in my last post : Atheists aren't that bad

Couldn't agree more.

Divine Performing Arts and Atheism

Saw the Divine Performing Arts show in Richardson, TX last night. The show was vibrant and spectacular, though a bit longer than expected/needed. What pissed me off was a song (they had lyrics displayed by an overhead projector), that had the following lyrics: "Beware of the harms that atheism brings". My understanding was that the Chinese philosophies were largely atheistic/non-theistic.

Hmm...let us take a look at the pantheon of atheists (or non-theists) and the damage they wreaked on humanity:

• Albert Einstein :"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religion than it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
• Arthur C. Clarke: "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him."
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: "In his later years, Chandra had openly admitted to being an atheist which also meant that he subscribed to no religion in the customary sense of the word." Vishveshwara, S. 2000. Leaves from an unwritten diary: S. Chandrasekhar, Reminiscences and Reflections
• Benjamin Franklin : "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies"
• Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian statesman (1889-1964): A self-professed atheist, he said of India, "No country or people who are slaves to dogma and dogmatic mentality can progress." [Key Ideas in Human Thought]
• Vincent Van Gogh: "I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create."
• Thomas Jefferson (Deist) : "History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. " – Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813". "Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies."
• Thomas Edison: "Religion is all bunk."
• Baba Amte (1914–2008): Respected Indian social activist, known for his work with lepers
• Bhagat Singh (1907–1931): Indian revolutionary freedom fighter.

The list of lumanaries are too long. I shudder at the very thought of the damage that Sagan, Nietzsche, Betrand Russell, Sartre, Roger Waters, Freud, Warren Buffet, Shelly, R.L. Stevenson, and other atheists unleashed on mankind!

Anyway, I am livid at those lyrics. Turns out that I am on the only one. Austin Cline has blogged about this. He says that Divine Performing Arts show which is touring the United States, is a propaganda piece for Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline founded in China by Li Hongzhi in 1992.

TED: Of Bonobos

I watched a video of presentation on bonobos: Apes that write, start fires and play Pac-Man by Susan Savage-Rumbaugh at TED. Absolutely fascinating stuff! I could not help but see the remarkable similarity between these lovable apes and us.