> From: John W Redelfs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > My atheist father used to tell me that "might makes right" is a bad > philosophy? Why? Unless there is a God who is against it, why would that > philosophy be any better or worse than any other? Upon what do atheists base > their morality? I've never been able to understand this. If selection of > the species is determined by survival of the fittest, isn't "might" the > ultimate good, biologically speaking? The strong are just doing nature a > favor by rubbing out the weak, preferably before they have a chance to > reproduce. Following this line of reasoning, would not killing babies be > one of the "moral" things a person could do? That way only the babies of > the strongest parents would be able to survive, and that would improve the > bloodline, isn't that so?
Look at people who tend to do those things today. Here's a hint: they mostly live in asia, tend to be extremely poor, and aren't particularly non-religious. Also look at the mid-east where certain religious factions take exquisite delight in blowing up busses filled with school children. However, in the modern west, doing such things tends to have a negative selective advantage. Male Lions, when they take over a pride, first kill every single Lion-cub from the previous alpha male. ----- "If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and the smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in "43" had come immediately after the "German Firm" stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in "33". But of course this isn't the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D." --They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 --by Milton Mayer _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
