Q. I suspect it's the Ten Commandments and/or the Sermon on the Mount.
In any case most atheists, apart from followers of Nietzsche, subscribe to Judeo-Christian values without being conscious of it.
Another exception may be atheists who follow the teachings of Buddha.
In any case most atheists, apart from followers of Nietzsche, subscribe to Judeo-Christian values without being conscious of it.
Another exception may be atheists who follow the teachings of Buddha.
A. Here is where the most blatant inconsistencies occur. First of all, atheistic humanists are totally inconsistent in affirming the traditional values of love and brotherhood. Albert Camus has been rightly criticized for inconsistently holding both the absurdity of life and the ethics of human love and brotherhood. The view that there are no values is logically incompatible with affirming the values of love and brotherhood. Bertrand Russel, too, was inconsistent. For though he was an atheist, he was an outspoken social critic, denouncing war and restrictions on sexual freedom. Russell admitted that he could not live as though ethical values were simply a matter of personal taste, and that he therefore found his views ‘incredible.’ “I do not know the solution,” he confessed.
The point is that if there is no God, then objective right and wrong do not exist. As Dostoyevsky said, “All things are permitted.” But man cannot live this way. So he makes a leap of faith and affirms values anyway. And when he does so, he reveals the inadequacy of a world without God. The horror of a world devoid of value was brought home to me with new intensity several years ago as I watched a BBC television documentary called ‘The Gathering.’ It concerned the reunion of survivors of the Holocaust in Jerusalem, where they rediscovered lost friendships and shared their experiences.
One former prisoner, a nurse, told of how she was made the gynecologist at Auschwitz. She observed that pregnant women were grouped together by the soldiers under the direction of Dr. Josef Mengele and housed in the same barracks. Some time passed, and she noted that she no longer saw any of these women. She made inquires. “Where are the pregnant women who were house in the barracks?” Someone replied, “Haven’t you heard? Dr. Mengele used them for ‘vivisection.’” Another woman told how Mengele had bound up her breasts so that she could not suckle her infant. The doctor wanted to learn how long an infant could survive without nourishment. Desperately this poor woman tried to keep her baby alive by giving it pieces of bread soaked in coffee, but to no avail.
Each day the baby lost weight, a fact that was eagerly monitored by Dr. Mengele. A nurse the came secretly to this woman and told her, “I arranged a way for you to get out of here, but you cannot take your baby with you. I have brought a morphine injection that you can give to your child to end its life.” When the women protested, the nurse was insistent: “Look, your baby is going to die anyway. At least save yourself.” And so this mother felt compelled to take the life of her own baby. Dr. Mengele was furious when he learned of it because he had lost his experimental specimen, and he searched among the dead to find the baby’s discarded corpse so that he could have on last weighing.
My heart was torn by these stories. One rabbi who survived the camp summed it up well when he said that at Auschwitz it was as though there existed a world in which all the Ten Commandments were reversed. Mankind has never seen such a hell. And yet, if God does not exist, then in a sense, our world is Auschwitz: There is no right and wrong: All things are permitted.
But no atheist, no agnostic, can live consistently with such a view. Friedrich Nietzsche himself, who proclaimed the necessity of living beyond good and evil, broke with his mentor Richard Wagner precisely over the issue of the composer’s anti-Semitism and strident German nationalism. Similarly, Jean-Paul Sartre writing in the aftermath of the Second World War, condemned anti-Semitism, declaring that a doctrine that leads to mass extermination is not merely an opinion. In his important essay ‘Existentialism Is a Humanism,’ Sartre struggles vainly to elude the contradiction between his denial of divinely preestablished values and his urgent desire to affirm the value of human persons. Like Russell, he could not live without the implications of his own denial of ethical absolutes.
Neither can the so-called New Atheists like Richard Dawkins. For although he says that there is no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference, he is an unabashed moralist. He vigorously condemns such actions such as the harassment and abuse of homosexuals, religious indoctrination of children, the Incan practice of human sacrifice, and prizing cultural diversity over the interests of Amish children. He even goes so far to offer his own amended Ten Commandments for guiding moral behavior, all the while marvelously oblivious to the contradiction with his ethical subjectivism. Indeed, one will probably never find an atheist who lives consistently with his system. For a universe without moral accountability and devoid of value is unimaginably terrible.
The point is that if there is no God, then objective right and wrong do not exist. As Dostoyevsky said, “All things are permitted.” But man cannot live this way. So he makes a leap of faith and affirms values anyway. And when he does so, he reveals the inadequacy of a world without God. The horror of a world devoid of value was brought home to me with new intensity several years ago as I watched a BBC television documentary called ‘The Gathering.’ It concerned the reunion of survivors of the Holocaust in Jerusalem, where they rediscovered lost friendships and shared their experiences.
One former prisoner, a nurse, told of how she was made the gynecologist at Auschwitz. She observed that pregnant women were grouped together by the soldiers under the direction of Dr. Josef Mengele and housed in the same barracks. Some time passed, and she noted that she no longer saw any of these women. She made inquires. “Where are the pregnant women who were house in the barracks?” Someone replied, “Haven’t you heard? Dr. Mengele used them for ‘vivisection.’” Another woman told how Mengele had bound up her breasts so that she could not suckle her infant. The doctor wanted to learn how long an infant could survive without nourishment. Desperately this poor woman tried to keep her baby alive by giving it pieces of bread soaked in coffee, but to no avail.
Each day the baby lost weight, a fact that was eagerly monitored by Dr. Mengele. A nurse the came secretly to this woman and told her, “I arranged a way for you to get out of here, but you cannot take your baby with you. I have brought a morphine injection that you can give to your child to end its life.” When the women protested, the nurse was insistent: “Look, your baby is going to die anyway. At least save yourself.” And so this mother felt compelled to take the life of her own baby. Dr. Mengele was furious when he learned of it because he had lost his experimental specimen, and he searched among the dead to find the baby’s discarded corpse so that he could have on last weighing.
My heart was torn by these stories. One rabbi who survived the camp summed it up well when he said that at Auschwitz it was as though there existed a world in which all the Ten Commandments were reversed. Mankind has never seen such a hell. And yet, if God does not exist, then in a sense, our world is Auschwitz: There is no right and wrong: All things are permitted.
But no atheist, no agnostic, can live consistently with such a view. Friedrich Nietzsche himself, who proclaimed the necessity of living beyond good and evil, broke with his mentor Richard Wagner precisely over the issue of the composer’s anti-Semitism and strident German nationalism. Similarly, Jean-Paul Sartre writing in the aftermath of the Second World War, condemned anti-Semitism, declaring that a doctrine that leads to mass extermination is not merely an opinion. In his important essay ‘Existentialism Is a Humanism,’ Sartre struggles vainly to elude the contradiction between his denial of divinely preestablished values and his urgent desire to affirm the value of human persons. Like Russell, he could not live without the implications of his own denial of ethical absolutes.
Neither can the so-called New Atheists like Richard Dawkins. For although he says that there is no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference, he is an unabashed moralist. He vigorously condemns such actions such as the harassment and abuse of homosexuals, religious indoctrination of children, the Incan practice of human sacrifice, and prizing cultural diversity over the interests of Amish children. He even goes so far to offer his own amended Ten Commandments for guiding moral behavior, all the while marvelously oblivious to the contradiction with his ethical subjectivism. Indeed, one will probably never find an atheist who lives consistently with his system. For a universe without moral accountability and devoid of value is unimaginably terrible.
How to stop my Guinea pig from biting me?
Q. I got a guinea pig baby from my friend who did not know her guinea was pregnant. She gave one to me and i had it for awhile and it keeps biting my me and every one by it we try say no bite but it did work and tap his noise but nothing work. (i am a first time owner w/ a guines pig)
Also i got him when he was 3 weeks and now he about 8 weeks old. I never start pick him up till a wee but i talk to him and gave him lot of treats so he know i am a friend not an enmey.
Also i got him when he was 3 weeks and now he about 8 weeks old. I never start pick him up till a wee but i talk to him and gave him lot of treats so he know i am a friend not an enmey.
A. DO NOT do anything physical to the guinea pig to "punish" it like tapping it on the nose-that is animal abuse. When your guinea pig learns to love and trust you (which comes with good quality care) the guinea pig will not bite you. Here is general information you NEED to know.
1.) Change their water daily...regardless of how much they have had to drink.
2.) Clean the cage at least 1x a week...more often if smaller cage
3.) Traditional pet store cages are not acceptable for adult guinea pigs. There are tons of websites that explain "C&C" cages that are fun and easy to build.
4.) Shavings must be aspen or carefresh (recycled paper) to prevent allergies or upper respiratory infection
5.) The primary food source should be hay. Alfalfa hay for young guinea pigs and timothy hay for adults (6months+). Food should be alfalfa based for 6 months and younger, and timothy based for older than 6 months.
6.) The ideal food is Oxbow brand. If not possible to get this, try Kleenmama or Kaytee Timothy Complete (this Kaytee brand can be found at Petco). Do not give seeds or other pellets as they have little nutritional value.
7.) Give lots of floor time but always monitor them. They will chew anything and everything--avoid giving them anything with plastic that can be ingested.
8.) They need their nails cut every month or so (2 person job; if their nails are black or if you feel uncomfortable, a vet can do it for $10 or less.)
9.) Find a vet who sees "exotics" or "pocket pets" in case you ever had a medical emergency.
10.) Educate yourself by looking at the guinealynx website (www.guinealynx.com) and their forums. This is a priceless resource for all types of questions.
11.) Give fresh veggies daily. Fruit may cause loose stool and upset stomachs. Guinea lynx has great charts discussing how much and what is okay...e.g. kale and spinach have lots of calcium which may lead to serious health problems....green or red leaf lettuce and cilantro are examples of safe food. If you give things like celery (or others that are stringy) be sure to cut it up in tiny pieces to avoid the strings posing hazards to the digestive system.
1.) Change their water daily...regardless of how much they have had to drink.
2.) Clean the cage at least 1x a week...more often if smaller cage
3.) Traditional pet store cages are not acceptable for adult guinea pigs. There are tons of websites that explain "C&C" cages that are fun and easy to build.
4.) Shavings must be aspen or carefresh (recycled paper) to prevent allergies or upper respiratory infection
5.) The primary food source should be hay. Alfalfa hay for young guinea pigs and timothy hay for adults (6months+). Food should be alfalfa based for 6 months and younger, and timothy based for older than 6 months.
6.) The ideal food is Oxbow brand. If not possible to get this, try Kleenmama or Kaytee Timothy Complete (this Kaytee brand can be found at Petco). Do not give seeds or other pellets as they have little nutritional value.
7.) Give lots of floor time but always monitor them. They will chew anything and everything--avoid giving them anything with plastic that can be ingested.
8.) They need their nails cut every month or so (2 person job; if their nails are black or if you feel uncomfortable, a vet can do it for $10 or less.)
9.) Find a vet who sees "exotics" or "pocket pets" in case you ever had a medical emergency.
10.) Educate yourself by looking at the guinealynx website (www.guinealynx.com) and their forums. This is a priceless resource for all types of questions.
11.) Give fresh veggies daily. Fruit may cause loose stool and upset stomachs. Guinea lynx has great charts discussing how much and what is okay...e.g. kale and spinach have lots of calcium which may lead to serious health problems....green or red leaf lettuce and cilantro are examples of safe food. If you give things like celery (or others that are stringy) be sure to cut it up in tiny pieces to avoid the strings posing hazards to the digestive system.
How to transition pet cat to new baby?
Q. I have a cat that I adopted last July. We recently had a baby (on the 27th of April). Our cat is very jealous and has become extraordinarily clingy. She used to be quite independent. How can I make my cat feel like a valued member of oir family again, and also teach her to leave our baby alone? I don't leave them alone together, but my cat tries to climb in my lap while I am feeding our baby, tries to get in our baby's face while she is in the carrier, etc.
A. First of all ALWAYS greet the cat before you deal with the baby - the cat was there first. Treat it like an older sibling. These are typical reactions and you should not push the cat away. Most cats are more curious about the new baby and I found it was better to just monitor their interactions to the baby.
Talk and pet the cat as you take care of the baby and be sure to clip the nails weekly and/or get SoftPaws nail caps to prevent problems.
Added: the above are typical actions and myths that are said about cats/babies. None of it is true. My son was raised with cats and kittens and no one got hurt. They never bothered the baby and as my son grew and started to crawl he was taught how to be nice to the cats. They never had to defend themselves - my son was never scratched. Its possible to have both, but the more you "separate" them the more the cat will be determined to find out why. As I said, treat this as an older sibling who wants to know his younger sibling!
Talk and pet the cat as you take care of the baby and be sure to clip the nails weekly and/or get SoftPaws nail caps to prevent problems.
Added: the above are typical actions and myths that are said about cats/babies. None of it is true. My son was raised with cats and kittens and no one got hurt. They never bothered the baby and as my son grew and started to crawl he was taught how to be nice to the cats. They never had to defend themselves - my son was never scratched. Its possible to have both, but the more you "separate" them the more the cat will be determined to find out why. As I said, treat this as an older sibling who wants to know his younger sibling!
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