Quote Originally Posted by Sailor View Post
Let's make it again. i do not believe Hitler, Stalin, Mao or bad guys as such, ever did what they did for the reasons that were directly based on religion. They had their own ideologies and moral standards and they tought they knew the One and Only Truth. Or even worse: they thought they knew.

If i were to tell something about cruelties directly linked in religion, i would mention: feeding Christians to Lions, Crusades, Colonisation of Africa, starting a Jihad, Inquisition, burning witches, etc etc. Religion might be not the direct reason, but it for sure does make a fine engine in giving people a justification for their actions. All these dudes believed, or worse: thought they knew they had a God/Gods on their side. (Luckily people nowadays are more civilised: they don't try to claim they know what God wants, or how it is?)

That is not my point either. This is my point:
In the questions of belief i have my opinions about people who keep telling they absolutely know what is the One and Only Truth. Get the point?
I have same feelings with the questions of politics, or any other -ism as well, but that is not the question here.
Some of the texts, in this thread, are good exaples for such arrogant thinking. At least so it looks to me.
I have a suspicious feelings about such texts, because, as i tried to point out, there's always a change for an unhappy conclusion (for those do not share their truth). Not in some Internet forum, but in the real life of course.
if someone says to me: If you do not believe that my daddy is stronger than your daddy, he'll burn you, then my honest answer is: bullshit, or who cares?
I hope i could point my toughts little better.
So, for the sake of discussion, perhaps there is no Truth? One and Only, or otherwise.

There may not be any such thing as evil then either.

We are simply human beings, which are simply another animal life form, and as such, the rules of "survival of the fittest" are paramount, and so what does it matter if Stalin, or anyone else had thousands of people killed, as long as we were not one of them?

Without any universal Truth we are all on our own, just trying to make it from birth to death, while getting what we can while we are here.

Or is it reasonable to have a philosophical "meaning" for our being, as long as it isn't religious?