CurtC
Illuminator
I'm too late to contribute, but I'm interested in hearing the outcome. In particular, I predict that Ceritus's former girlfriend might want to deny visitation because he's an atheist, but that won't come up in court. Her lawyer will know that the court couldn't consider the religion (or lack of) as a basis of awarding visitation (and just visitation I gather, not even custody).
So the question of where Ceritus gets his morals will not be asked. That's my prediction.
But I do have an answer ready - it's pretty easy to show that no one gets their morals from the Bible. The Bible is full of obviously immoral behavior, which God approves of. There's the Jephthah story in Judges 11, where a warrior strikes a deal with God that if he wins a battle, he'll offer to God as a burned sacrifice, the first thing that comes out of his house when he returns home. This turns out to be his only daughter. The good and honorable Jephthah follows through on his commitment and sacrifices her.
The Bible also tells you just how hard God wants you to beat your slaves: anything up to the point of causing actual injury is OK with him.
Now if you find either of these acts to be immoral, then you must be getting that sense of morality from somewhere other than your religion.
The fact that other higher species also exhibit social morality (as in behavior codes and punishment for breaking them) tells us that our sense of morality is hard-wired into our brains. This gets screwed up in some people, but the vast majority of people are decent folks who would rather help their fellow citizens, not because of religion, but simply because they want to.
So the question of where Ceritus gets his morals will not be asked. That's my prediction.
But I do have an answer ready - it's pretty easy to show that no one gets their morals from the Bible. The Bible is full of obviously immoral behavior, which God approves of. There's the Jephthah story in Judges 11, where a warrior strikes a deal with God that if he wins a battle, he'll offer to God as a burned sacrifice, the first thing that comes out of his house when he returns home. This turns out to be his only daughter. The good and honorable Jephthah follows through on his commitment and sacrifices her.
The Bible also tells you just how hard God wants you to beat your slaves: anything up to the point of causing actual injury is OK with him.
Now if you find either of these acts to be immoral, then you must be getting that sense of morality from somewhere other than your religion.
The fact that other higher species also exhibit social morality (as in behavior codes and punishment for breaking them) tells us that our sense of morality is hard-wired into our brains. This gets screwed up in some people, but the vast majority of people are decent folks who would rather help their fellow citizens, not because of religion, but simply because they want to.
