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Why do religious people always think life would be chaos without their religion? People are not the unrelenting hedonists that Calvinists make them out to be. Nor are they as selfish and cruel as people assume. There are a lot of bad, irresponsible people, absolutely, but they existed and still exist comfortably in the confines of religious belief.
Humans are social animals that tend towards some variant of hierarchical society. Evolution in our species has rewarded greater cooperation and traits like empathy that have cemented close bonds within groups defined in a variety of ways according to the environment and the culture that develops in that environment
If God doesn't exist and Jesus didn't rise from the dead then Christians should be the most pitiful creatures on the planet, for believing in Him and following His teachings. My argument is not that the world would go to chaos it's that it should.
- If there's no resurrection and judgement why be faithful to a spouse?
- If there's no resurrection and judgement why care about the future survival of the human race if it's one and done?
- A wise approach would be live life for every pleasure possible.
I think a good argument for God is that our experience of life tells us the following:
- sex if fun but outside of the confines of a committed marriage it causes a ton of suffering for children, single spouses, health, all having nothing to do with survival
- when people are not monogamous they are not contemplating the survival of the species but doing everything to avoid the responsibility via abortion, protection, judgements to not pay child support, etc.
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Their are selective benefits to monogamy, though. For instance, giving birth to a child is an enormous investment for a woman. Finding a mate that gives attention to her and her offspring exclusively gave her offspring a better chance to survive. This type of reasoning suggests that there are selective benefits to monogamy. Would you agree with this much?
I agree that there are many benefits to monogamy however my reasoning is entirely different. I would also point out that a parents committed relationship to each other does so much more for a child than simply survival. Being a child of divorce I remember drastically how life was different when my parent were together vs when they divorced. The physological changes are enormous and has little to nothing to do with survival.
With infertile couples over the world like my wife and I, if life is all about survival and child rearing why do and should we actively pursue a faithful relationship with each other given that we have failed at the ultimate purpose of our existence. Why should we not committ suicide and free up resources for others?
If a person leaves his spouse due to infertility, one would think the world would easily cheer him on for attempting to spread the human gene-pool. However if this scenario was brought up in a room full of women and the unfaithful man walked in, he may have a hard time leaving alive. I think our experience of life, right and wrong, the cause and effect way this universerve is designed, points us to better explanation than evolution. Simply my opinion.