Atheism
has no moral floor. Ethically speaking, atheism is a bottomless sinkhole.
Atheists complain about how they are not trusted. Atheists
complain about Christian ethics.
Well, here’s a graphic example of post-Christian social
ethics. You can’t make this stuff up:
Forward Thinking: What Do We Owe Our Parents?Given that one of the ten commandments orders children to honor their parents, Christianity seems to emphasize filial duty. Leaving Christianity means I no longer believe I have a divinely-mandated obligation to my parents.I want to invite readers to discuss this question in the comment section and to invite bloggers to respond on their own blogs.Pigtail Guy says:By default? By law? By commandment? A child owes its parents nothing.parents who choose to have a child are the ones who accept responsibility for raising, and indeed mentoring the child. The child has no choice in the matter, and is basically stuck with her parents until she comes of age, or until society deems her parents abusive and decides that they are not fit as parents.The child does not owe her parents merely for bringing her to life or for adopting her.Alexander Cherry says:Having a child is a great and deep wrong. All of us would be better off were we not born. So, parenthood is in many cases simply paying reparations. And offspring should owe NOTHING for those reparations. There is no obligation, nor should there be, apart from the obligation that we should feel towards any person (well, any person with which we have a history – there’s no escaping that).smrnda says:Instead of *my parents* I prefer to think of ‘what do I owe older people?’ For one, I should be willing to pay taxes so that those too old to work can get by, and perhaps enjoy a few years at the end where they no longer have to work. I strongly prefer using government welfare to take care of the elderly for several reasons.In my own case, I live very far from my parents, and given that they had children late, there’s no real direct assistance I can provide them. My brother doesn’t even live in the same country as our parents. So in the case of our family, us helping out our parents isn’t feasible at all, and since we can’t do it, I’d prefer to turn my money over to the government and have them do it.Rosa says:Yes.I am way more able to take care with someone else’s parents, who never did anything to me, than with my parent. I am so happy there are people who are not me, who are not conflicted or stressed out in helping him, to do it (the government, in the form of Social Security, and also my stepmother).TKB says:I’m inclined to agree that a child does not owe anything to their parents, not legally, morally, or any other sense of ‘duty’. Parents who have the choice to have children or not.rizarosette says:Children owe their parents absolutely nothing. Parents become parents for their own selfish reasons (whether they see it that way or not). Respect, Love, Kindness, are all things that we EARN. If I respect and love my mother, it’s because she has qualities that I deem respectable and loveable, NOT because she was able to squeeze a baby out- anyone with the proper parts can do that.Rosie says:My parents did everything they did out of love and good intentions, but what I experienced was trauma. So, do I owe them for their love and good intentions, despite their rather profound ignorance? Or not, since from my end it indeed looks to have been both disrespectful and harmful?
Rilian says:Nothing.We owe our parents nothing. They chose to have children. Well, we owe them the same as any other person — just don’t attack them out of nowhere or anything. But if you want to go away and never talk to them again, no one should try to convince you otherwise.http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/03/forward-thinking-what-do-we-owe-our-parents.html/comment-page-1#comment-145674
Wow, what a collection of horrible people.
ReplyDeleteThey all sound like disaffected teenagers.
ReplyDeleteSome of them are bitter about their childhood. That raises the question of whether they are atheists because they had an unhappy childhood-as they remember it.
DeleteBut some of them seem like spoiled little ingrates.
Of course, part of the appeal of atheism is that you have no duties to anyone else. You only answer to yourself.
Mind you, they are very demanding when it comes to how others ought to treat them.