Last night, as I was clicking on links that the blogs that I read have, I arrived at one of a devout catholic. One of this person’s entries was about how American Humanist Association in Washington DC were going to run ads on buses that read “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake”. While I am in firm agreement with the AMA, this person is not! Obviously, since he has a problem with all ‘silly atheists’ as he puts it.
His argument is that how do we derive at ‘good’ without something to base it upon, a standard or a code of conduct. And he choses the Bible or any religious book for that matter & god as the guide for the good. He also says that if there isn’t a god then why put constraints on people to do good and telling people to ‘do good’ is at best pedantic. Mr.Catholic also doesn’t allow people to comment against his blog posts.
I have to ask : Mr. Catholic, will you only do good because god says so? Or are you only doing good so that your god won’t punish you or will be pleased with you and grant you entry into heaven? Do you really need a religious book to tell you what is wrong and what is right? It might help some people like you but the truth is most good people, who happen to believe in a god, would be good even if they didn’t believe in a god.
Do you really need a god to tell you that you should not steal? Or that you should not beat a harmless being? That you should not molest an innocent child? Do you really need to read it in the Bible to help a stranger in trouble, someone drowning or in an accident? Do you only help others just because you think Jesus or Yahweh or the fairy godmother wants you to?
If you do, then the rest of the world is in big trouble!!
And he also thinks that it is not fair to run the add in the 3rd week of November, because December belongs to Jesus and his followers and running it so close to December is harsh. And he challenges the AMA to run the add during the month of Ramadan (which he claims they won’t do since they might get sued).
That notion is a ball of rubbish! The Islamic fundamentalists would sue no matter which time of the year it is. The timings doesn’t so much matter to them – they would find a reason to protest & sue at any time of the year!