In other words, you atheists (rightwing atheists, anyway) refuse to understand that morality isn't about "virtue" but, quite literally, about "mojo." It is from your perspective "primitive" and "cultic," not philosophical. Funny, but your leftwing brethren have no problem with cultic morality among the "oppressed indigenous pipples."
However "virtuous" I may be, if there is no G-d, then there is no "mojo." And the "mojo" is what morality is really all about. I'm afraid this is something you admirers of pagan Greek philosophy never seem to understand.
May I ask if you believe that in the absence of G-d pork is still forbidden to Jews? Or that animal sacrifices must be performed in precisely a certain way in order to avoid sacrilege? Or if Aristotle's rational morality told him it was forbidden (not "wrong," but forbidden) to castrate males of any species regardless of the animal population?
"Thou shalt not kill" is based the very same rationale and authority as "it is forbidden to eat the meat of the sacrifice before the blood has been sprinkled on the altar." The fact that one of those commandments is more intuitive to mankind ultimately has nothing to do with its validity.
Now do you understand that it's not about either "reward" or "virtue?"
The entire problem with Communism is that it is a non-Theistic moral/ethical system. It may have killed more millions of people than Randianism or certain other non-Theistic moral/ethical systems, but they're all at bottom wrong.
I try to learn as much about Jewish theology as possible, so I'll readily admit I was not aware of Halakhah. From your brief description it sounds like it was plagiarized from Judaism by the Scientologists, who have a very similar principle called thetans.
This sort of mysticism might have been a very useful way for the ancient Israelites to categorize good and evil, but I think if they had looked to Hellenization with those "pagan Greek philosophers" instead of rejecting it, they would have found that there's much more rational explanations than 'mojo'.
Funny, but your leftwing brethren have no problem with cultic morality among the "oppressed indigenous pipples."
Agreed. Leftists laugh and giggle at Christians and Jews, but are quite respectful of any two-bit religious ceremony performed in third world backwaters. How many leftists have you seen with icons from Native American religion hanging in their faculty offices and such?
I assure that my derision is equally applied to every sort of mysticism and superstition, not just the major ones.
May I ask if you believe that in the absence of G-d pork is still forbidden to Jews?
You get to make whatever rules and regulations you would like about the imbibing of meats into your body. There's nothing metaphysical that makes pork react to your physiology differently than it would someone else. I don't have an opinion on the next two. You're free to do as you will, but I'm not an expert on animal sacrifices, haven't ever done it, never will. So maybe you should ask another party on that.
I did have both of my dogs spayed however.
The entire problem with Communism is that it is a non-Theistic moral/ethical system.
The problem with Communism is that it doesn't work. A non-Theistic moral/ethical system based on the principles of Spinoza, Jefferson, and Einstein has never been guilty of murdering millions.
I thought I’d point out one thing that you briefly mentioned in “right wing atheism” as it reminded me of something.
Many people mistakenly believe that the NAZIS were “right wing.” This is not true, and said fallacy is largely the result of Marxist propaganda which defined fascism as its polar opposite. In fact, the influence of Marxist scholarship has largely distorted what fascism was. “NAZI” was an acronym for “National Socialist German Worker’s Party.” Terms like “socialist” and “worker’s” ought to make you very suspicious that they were “right wing.” In reality, both the communists and the NAZIs were socialsit; communists believed in a class-based socialism, and NAZIs believed in a national socialism.
When you look at what both the NAZIs and the communists either both embraced in common or both despised in common, you see how very similar they were. And one of the things that BOTH despised was conservativism.
“Right” and “left” wing came from the aisle of the old French Parliament. Those seated on the right favored the absolute monarch, and economically they favored government monopolies and a controlled economy; those on the left favored democracy, a free economy, and personal liberty.
This analogy completely breaks down particularly when dealing with American conservatism, which would be seated on the LEFT of the aisle, while Liberals would be on the right. But, clearly, neither the Marxists OR the fascists were “Right wing” based on the traditional understanding of the term.
By the way, I agree and affirm the rest of your analysis on the nature of morality, and its absence apart from G-d.
Oh, and I should also mention WHY the NAZIs so despised the Jews. It wasn’t racial; it was moral. While the NAZIs held to the superiority of the “Aryan race,” they didn’t decide to exterminate blacks, or Asians, etc. So why did they decide to (literally) exterminate Jews?
George Steiner put it this way:
“By killing the Jews, Western culture would eradicate those who had “invented” God... The Holocaust is a reflex, the more complete for being long inhibited, of natural sensory consciousness, of instinctual polytheistic and animist needs.”
Ernst Nolte defined fascism as “the practical and violent resistance to transcendence.”
Facsism despised God, and despised the objective morality that came from God.
Atheists should realize they they share this same agenda that the NAZIs embraced.
By the way, while Hitler could not, and knew that he could not, fully eradicate Christianity from the society that had once given birth to Martin Luther, he COULD attempt to redefine it. Hitler sought to separate “Judeo” from “Christianity,” continuing the intellectual tradition that had begun under anti-Semite Julius Wellhausen (Documentary Hypothesis) and continued under scholars like Friedrich Delitzsch. And the reason they believed the Old Testament was ‘a dangerous book’ filled with errors and lies was because it was “Jewish.”
Nietzsche wrote,
“Christianity, sprung from Jewish roots and comprehensible only as a growth on this soil, represents the counter-movement to any morality of breeding, of race, of privilege: it is the anti-Aryan religion par excellence.”
Hitler began the “German Christian Movement” as an attempt to subvert Christianity and separate it from its historical connection to Judaism. Thousands of devout Protestants went to prison and even death (eg. Dietrich Bonhoeffer). These Christians began the “Confessing Church” movement to FIGHT the NAZI’s distortion. A great deal of persecution and pressure was placed on thousands of pastors, who were forced to choose sides (with one side being vicious and having all the power).
Today, I proudly affirm this tradition of Christian resistance to fascism; and I proudly affirm the term “Judeo-Christian” to affirm my solidarity and identification with the worldview that Christians and Jews share in common.