Stabbing by Roger Ascham School

[Fatbaz]

I think we may well be born with the capacity for empathy (like we're born with the capacity to learn a language or two), but it still has to be learned and developed. Some other mammals seem to be able to develop empathetic traits too.

Of the 10 commandments, only two are actually laws in Western civilisation. (The ‘bearing false witness against your neighbour’ instruction is ambiguous and why does it only apply to neighbours and not everybody?)

Killing and stealing are crimes whilst the other nonsense is simply the ranting of an imaginary megalomaniac.
In the second commandment, God admits to being ‘..a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”

‘Hippo’ thinks that this kind of claptrap means that a child who, “.. has no awareness of the Ten Commandments seems less likely to become a good citizen than one with a more traditional moral upbringing.”

I’d say that Hippo is wrong.

At the risk of getting too far into moral philosophy – and too far away from the stabbing in Walthamstow – the ‘empathy’ issue is closely entwined with ‘altruism’ within societal groups. Basically, in order to live as ‘a group’, the members of it need to agree as to what behaviours are beneficial to the group as a whole. These behaviours are deemed to be acceptable and ‘right’. Behaviours that are detrimental to the group as a whole are deemed to be unacceptable and ‘wrong’. Killing and stealing within a group are obvious examples of something that is ‘wrong’.
The point here – for the benefit of Hippo – is that altruism/empathy have existed within groups of Homo Sapiens from the earliest times; long before the commandments were written. There is ample evidence that altruism is a necessary component of all societies.

Rape is not prohibited in the ten commandments but we all know that it’s wrong. How? Because we just do. No tablets of stone required.

[Flying Hippo]

People need a story. The ability to tell, and believe, in a story is at the heart of our nature. It's what sets us apart from our closest evolutionary relatives, and has enabled us to construct our civilisation. It's the basis of everything from a moral code, government, Limited companies, currencies through to human rights, laws and compound interest.

Sometimes, however, the story can change. It can happen slowly at first, but then the change accelerates at a rate that can unleash forces that collapse entire civilisations. It's happened before. Not that I want to worry anyone or anything.

Thank you. You're in the zone!

[Flying Hippo]

We don't need the ten commandments to know right from wrong.
[/quote]

That's good. But those doing the stabbing, and many of those getting stabbed, might.

[Flying Hippo]

Yeah - but you do have to be taught right from wrong - everybody does. I don't believe humans are born with an innate sense of what's right. We usually learn from seeing our elders behave, but it's useful to have some rules written down for reference.

I'm the biggest atheist there is, but the Ten Commandments is just someone sitting down and writing down some basic rules of engagement, surely? They did crow bar in numbers 1 to 3 to boost their particular sect, but the rest are pretty fair rules.

I'm all for them (at least, most of them)

Appreciate the helpful intervention. However the evangelical stormtroop of the League of Militant Atheists has been unleashed and this type of blasphemy must be terminated. It will not cease its' mental fight until it has built Caracas in this grey and confused land of sink estates, drill rap, tattoo/piercing shops and Cheeky Chicken carryouts.

[Flying Hippo]

‘Hippo’ thinks that this kind of claptrap means that a child who, “A child who spends their childhood playing Grand Theft Auto but has no awareness of the Ten Commandments seems less likely to become a good citizen than one with a more traditional moral upbringing.”

I’d say that Hippo is wrong.

Went for home too soon. One or two more civil exchanges might well have drawn a bit more out.

A little more patience might also have avoided the need for misquotation, misinterpretation, and predicating a point on a false premise (the stock in trade tactic of Marxists, later perfected by the Bliarites). At that point the cold, dead eyes could have been better revealed, with the dripping yellow fangs of the soulless, desperate fanatic - bent on destruction.

[Long slender neck]

We don't need the ten commandments to know right from wrong.

That's good. But those doing the stabbing, and many of those getting stabbed, might.
[/quote]
Pretty sure they know what they're doing is wrong.

[Fatbaz]

@ Hippo,

nowhere have I misquoted or misrepresented your writing. Nothing that I have written is predicated on a false premise.
As for your reference to 'blasphemy' well, that law was abolished in England and wales in 2008. There hasn't been a conviction for this 'offence' since 1977 - and that was a private prosecution.

I'm afraid that you're locked in an ancient past that's no longer relevant.