Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Muslim paedophilia Slur

Atheism a road to paedophilia?
Yep, that is the bow that was drawn at a recent debate between Sydney atheists and Sydney's Muslim students association. The debaters on our side as I am sure I would have been where flabbergasted by this, or simply missed it amongst the barrage of other non-sequiturs and logical fallacies.

Let’s get to the crux of it. Their argument is that basically, atheists have no moral arbitrator so thus anything is eventually acceptable. Why they didn't use some less heinous crime is beyond me, may be a psychologist can weigh in on why they would deem this as an action they would take if they felt there was no divine policemen to keep them in check.
OK so if there is no moral enforcer, no God(s) who can define moral law then moral law needs to be defined as we go along. This comes back to Euthyphros dilemma; Is something good because God deems it so, or does God do things that are only good. If you pick the first then God could arbitrarily change the rules, could all of a sudden decide that killing your own child is morally good... don't laugh he did this to Abraham, Jephthah, the 42 children that God kills with bears and his own son, if you believe the bible.
If you take the second option, then Morality is over and above God, and God is not omnipotent (all powerful) and omnibenevolent (all good) as he is deemed by some, all-be-it not by some Muslims.

So you either are worshipping a being that deems murder is good on its whim, or cannot change morality and thus morality arises independently of this being.

Let’s look where the atheist view gets us, independently arisen morality.
I will state first up I believe that morality is objective, meaning that the same morality doesn't necessarily hold for all situations. For example I think murder is abhorrent and wrong... but if I was thrust into combat I would fight and kill to save me and my families lives.
I think rape is wrong (actually above murder, but that is personal disgust), but can see that the Angler fish in which the male effectively rapes the female as the only means of perpetuating their species is not morally as wrong as letting the species die out.
I think you get the picture, morality in life is a grey area, you need to think about things a bit and not be moraly lazy, besides who wouldn't steal a loaf of bread to feed their starving family.

Society, to work in cohesion develops rules however. We don't need to rape to survive as a species, so it is outlawed, leniency is shown the thief doing so out of necessity, killing in self-defence is also shown leniency. These rules have been built up over time in secular legal systems all over the world, independently of each other, and often times independently of religion.

Now to the argument of paedophilia. Most societies deem sex between consenting individuals as OK, if there is no consent then it is simply rape.
I believe every country has an age of consent, and this is deemed by their legal institution as the age at which a child can make possible life changing decisions, such as moving out on their own, or consenting to sexual intercourse, this varies country to country which is a little odd, but interestingly averages around 16 years of age.
This makes sense as children are naive, they are overly trusting and they are easily influenced/ picking an age that allows for mental maturation in a majority of children, allows for these decisions to be made with greater foresight. If they can't consent then it is against their will and thus rape, where paedophilia is just rape of a minor.
So for our society paedophilia is rightly outlawed.

But let’s create a hypothetical world, one where a disease causes all males of the intelligent species inhabiting this world to be sterile shortly after they first become sterile, long before mental maturation, lets also say IVF for whatever reason is not discovered or doesn't work.
A law maybe passed that enforces these young boys to continue the species is it wrong, in our eyes, yes. In this species eyes they wouldn't exist without it.

Sunday, 11 August 2013

Friday September 13 talks will be:
First talk;
Professor George Paxinos
Professor Paxinos is a NHMRC Australia Fellow, NeuRAVisiting/Conjoint Professor of Psychology and Medical Sciences at the UNSW. His main areas of research and interest involve the structure of the brain of humans and experimental animals.
Humans: Without a soul, without free will and with leftovers of a reptilian brain
Synopsis;Professor Paxinos will question the soul in philosophical, psychological and neurological terms. He will also discuss the gains to be made from the acceptance that there is no free will. Finally he will question the intellect that fails to acknowledge the CO2 sarcophagus.
Second talk;
Peter Furness
Peter has had considerable community involvement over many years. He was a councillor on South Sydney City Council, serving as deputy mayor for three years. In 2004 Peter co-founded Australian Marriage Equality and was its National Convenor for a number of years. 
Secular Charities
Peter is seeking to establish an atheist/humanist benevolent organisation. Such organisations already exist in the UK and the US but not necessarily in Australia. 
Please note that the dinner and talks will both be at the one venue, First Floor Strattons Hotel, 249 Castlereagh Street Sydney.
Dinner will be available from 6.00pm whilst the talks will begin at 7.00pm.
You will be able to eat before or during the talks. We will also have a 15 minute intermission. This venue affords us much in the way of social possibilities as well as the talks. Please note that catering will not be available after 8.30pm. Meals are available from $10.00.

Location: 249 Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW
The nearest station is Museum, whilst Town Hall Station is a 5 to 10 minute walk. Cheap parking is available at 730 George Street, $9 flat rate 6 mins from the meetup hotel.

Friday 9th August

We thank Professor Peter Baume and Dr Stephen Mutch and all who attended for making our Friday night talks such a brilliant success. Both of our speakers kept the audience enthralled by their presentations. Virtually every seat in the room was taken, with another record attendance. The attendance at Sydney Atheists lectures is now double what was achieved in 2012.
Stay tuned for a very busy August by checking out forthcoming events. Please note however, that Sydney Atheists are not necessarily the hosts of them all.