Religion is the root of all evil.

Well to give you credit, you did already explain that you borrow the concept from religion.
It took you forever but there it is.
I agree.

You certainly can use concepts like 'right' or 'wrong' or 'good' or 'evil' if you want but just be clear you are borrowing those standards.
It becomes a dodgy debate when you do that though and you stand a good chance of making your position very unclear to others.
After all... you, yourself do not actualy believe in these concepts.

What you DO end up with is concepts of 'good' and 'bad' like Themnax has come up with.
Whats 'beneficial or not'.
To you.
Now it might be beneficial for you if you work together as a society.
It might also be beneficial for you and society if old sick people are euthanised too.
It might also be beneficial for your society to let as many Africans die of AIDS as can be.
As a matter of fact, we already know what society and philosophy you will end up at because we already went through this several times in the past years.
Fascism.
Stalinist USSR
Mao
Heck, North Korea is still hanging around today.

But yeah, those are very logical conclusions to a world view that has no 'right' or 'wrong' or 'evil'.
Just what benefits the most/harms the most in that society.
Great!

 

Who claimed that they borrowed it from religion?

Evil is a social concept borrowed by religion, not borrowed from religion. Morality is also a social concept borrowed by religion, not borrowed from religion. These concepts would exist in society had religion never. It's simple sociology. ALL religions across the world and through history didn't magically come up with the same concepts. For people to operate in a social society basic morality and cultural concepts of whats right and wrong have to exist. All social creatures have basic rules of operation inside their communities, we just happen to have language so we can put definitions to these things.

 

The OP Relaxxx did.
He explains it in several most recent posts.

and no, it is not borrowed from secular society.
it is a 'religious' concept.
you really need to keep thinking that through Sera.
Dont stop now, just keep thinking about it and trust me it will 'dawn on you' that it must be the case.
Go

 

I never said evil was a concept born from secular society. It isn't about religious and secular seperation. It doesn't matter if the society that coined the term or "began the concept" was a religious one (even though many early societies had their concepts of evil before they even had their concepts of other societies existing). Newton was a religious man, but does that mean the theory of gravity is a religious concept?

 

Keep going.
You can really get things into perspective when you understand that every society we know of from anywhere on the planet going back to the earliest known records of civilisation has something in common:
They believed the world was governed and subject (to some extent) by at least Deities of some god-like powers.
Not always Theism or MonoTheism but some sort of Deism.

There have been some recent attempts to create societies which operate 'as if' there is no such thing as gods or divinity.
Not surprisingly, they accepted that there is only 'beneficial' or 'harmful' to their societies.
So,
You really cannot argue with them rounding up all the Heroin addicts into a field, putting a bullet into their heads and sending the parents a bill for the bullet.
It DID benefit their society.

But again, you have to 'borrow' the concepts.
This is exactly why Dawkins protested when producers titled his antitheist documentary:
'The Root of All Evil?'
He explains its borrowing the concept from religion.

 

Everything is borrowed from something, and language changes and evolves with man. 2 thousand years from now the word religion may be synonymous evil. But it would not replace it simply because religion has 3 syllables. Evil, it just rolls of the tongue, it’s a keeper.

 

I hate to beat a dead horse but we are not talking about the 'word' itself but the meaning and concept its intended to communicate.

 

Sera

Exactly... 'All social creatures have basic rules inside their communities'

These rules are NOT driven by a religion.. But a desire for all in the
commumunity to survive.
A basic 'evolutionary trait' applied through reason. Our prime survival
mechainism.
Religion did not arise as something to govern moral codes... only a fool thinks such.. It arose from human imagination. What is lightning and thunder?
Why does the earth shake.
Why do the crops fail...
Also
Why does the beaver know its way.
How do termites build cites?
How does a primal forrest speak to us?
For they speak to occam too..even as a rationalist occam hears
the power of a forrest, a mighty river, a quiet meddow.
They,, are what life is about...

The kingdom of god is within you. Not in buildings of wood and stone.
Split a piece of wood and i am there. Lift a stone and u will find me.

Occam has never had trouble with the concept of god or gods.
Spirits or deities... intangbles and unknowns.

Only, with the idiots that say they KNOW. The small and the stupid.
Unwilling to even lift an ignorant eye to exploring the unknown.

Occam

 

Themnax

U the man

Occam