In Christianity, we are as soldiers on duty who cannot desert their post. Suicide and murder are mortal sins, damning one to perdition hereafter. Christians differ on whether this is a causal connection: works → fate, or predestined by grace: grace → works and grace → fate. Either way, the consequences of believing in the Christian conception of life after death add up to practicing Christian virtue in this life.
In Buddhism, you get reincarnated, but only if you have lived a virtuous life do you get a favorable rebirth. Killing, including of yourself, is one of the worst sins and guarantees you a good many aeons in the hell worlds. The consequences of believing in the Buddhist conception of life after death add up to practicing Buddhist virtue in this life.
In Islam, paradise awaits the virtuous and hell the wicked. The consequences of believing in the Islamic conception of life after death add up to practicing Islamic virtue in this life. We can observe these consequences in current affairs.
I don’t think that helps. For instance, if they alieve in an afterlife but their religion says that suicide and murder are mortal sins, they won’t actually commit murder or suicide, but they would still not think it was sad that someone died in the way we think it’s sad, would not insist that public policies should reduce deaths, etc.
You would also expect a lot of people to start thinking of religious prohibitions on murder and suicide like many people think of religious prohibitions on homosexuality—If God really wants that, he’s being a jerk and hurting people for no obvious reason. And you’d expect believers to simply rationalize away religious prohibitions on murder and suicide and say that they don’t apply just like religious believers already do to lots of other religious teachings (of which I’m sure you can name your own examples).
If God really wants that, he’s being a jerk and hurting people for no obvious reason.
Ask a Christian and they’ll give you reasons. Ask a Jew and they’ll give you reasons, except for those among the laws that are to be obeyed because God says so, despite there not being a reason known to Man. Ask a Buddhist, ask a Moslem.
There is no low-hanging fruit here, no instant knock-down arguments against any of these faiths that their educated practitioners do not know already and have answers to.
Yes, but in the real world, when a religious demand conflicts with something people really believe, it can go either way. Some people will find reasons that justify the demand. But some will find reasons that go in the other direction—instead of reasons why the religion demands some absurd thing, they’d give reasons as to why the religion’s obvious demand really isn’t a demand at all. Where are the people saying that the prohibition on murder is meant metaphorically, or only means “you shouldn’t commit murders in this specific situation that only existed thousands of years ago”? For that matter, where are the people saying “sure, my religion says we shouldn’t murder, but I have no right to impose that on nonbelievers by force of law”, in the same way that they might say that about other mortal sins?
In Christianity, we are as soldiers on duty who cannot desert their post. Suicide and murder are mortal sins, damning one to perdition hereafter. Christians differ on whether this is a causal connection: works → fate, or predestined by grace: grace → works and grace → fate. Either way, the consequences of believing in the Christian conception of life after death add up to practicing Christian virtue in this life.
In Buddhism, you get reincarnated, but only if you have lived a virtuous life do you get a favorable rebirth. Killing, including of yourself, is one of the worst sins and guarantees you a good many aeons in the hell worlds. The consequences of believing in the Buddhist conception of life after death add up to practicing Buddhist virtue in this life.
In Islam, paradise awaits the virtuous and hell the wicked. The consequences of believing in the Islamic conception of life after death add up to practicing Islamic virtue in this life. We can observe these consequences in current affairs.
I don’t think that helps. For instance, if they alieve in an afterlife but their religion says that suicide and murder are mortal sins, they won’t actually commit murder or suicide, but they would still not think it was sad that someone died in the way we think it’s sad, would not insist that public policies should reduce deaths, etc.
You would also expect a lot of people to start thinking of religious prohibitions on murder and suicide like many people think of religious prohibitions on homosexuality—If God really wants that, he’s being a jerk and hurting people for no obvious reason. And you’d expect believers to simply rationalize away religious prohibitions on murder and suicide and say that they don’t apply just like religious believers already do to lots of other religious teachings (of which I’m sure you can name your own examples).
Ask a Christian and they’ll give you reasons. Ask a Jew and they’ll give you reasons, except for those among the laws that are to be obeyed because God says so, despite there not being a reason known to Man. Ask a Buddhist, ask a Moslem.
There is no low-hanging fruit here, no instant knock-down arguments against any of these faiths that their educated practitioners do not know already and have answers to.
Yes, but in the real world, when a religious demand conflicts with something people really believe, it can go either way. Some people will find reasons that justify the demand. But some will find reasons that go in the other direction—instead of reasons why the religion demands some absurd thing, they’d give reasons as to why the religion’s obvious demand really isn’t a demand at all. Where are the people saying that the prohibition on murder is meant metaphorically, or only means “you shouldn’t commit murders in this specific situation that only existed thousands of years ago”? For that matter, where are the people saying “sure, my religion says we shouldn’t murder, but I have no right to impose that on nonbelievers by force of law”, in the same way that they might say that about other mortal sins?