"The only thing all living objects share is the desire to procreate and to live at all costs"

All living things, of course. People, no.

Ask about the killing of a child in any language, it is wrong. The same generally goes for theft, and the vast majority of heinous crimes.

Yes, it can make people appear wise to be cynical, but not when it defies common sense - you can rail abot differences all you lke, but there is an awful lot of common ground the human race shares.

I can assure you, I live in no bubble - I tend to view the trappings of faith as more of a bubble than seeing things for what they are.
I've lived in a number of countries, not all of which are in 'the west.'

Go talk to people in Asia. Talk to people getting by on the streets of Europe and even the middle east.

They're all just trying to get by, but they do all have a reasonably common set of principles - some are diverted by culture and religion, but most share the basics.

I suggest perhaps in your cynicism it is you who are living in some kind of bubble.

Boaz.... please don't agree with me. it gives me a sense of failure.
Turn right then left -- have you not been watching the news? How often have we heard something like the following... The USA and Australia 'regret' the killing of 10 children and their mothers when a bomb blew up their house. We thought it was a hifdeout for terrorists. "But," says our glorious leader when questioned on the deaths of millions of totally innocent men women and children in Iraq alone since the first gulf war, "I regret nothing! Even knowing what I do now I would act in exactly the same way again!" A conscience? come on! As for your suggestion that humans are somehow different from animals -- sorry mate, they arent. Our Limbic system ensures that.

ybgirp.. credit where credit is due.. if you say something insiteful.. I will give it due recognition. I don't reject all you say just because we might disagree on other matters, and I hope you will reciprocate.

TRTL "Killing of a child in any language is wrong" ? woooo.. mate.. not at all. And that particular issue underlines exactly WHY I said yp's post was valuable.. infantacide is not uncommon in many cultures and the disposal of less economically valuable female children is a regretable practice which is all too common.

So, the values people hold, will resolve down (as ypgirp said) to survival and propagation.

The only motivation which seems to separate us noticably from the animal world is 'self gratification' as a studied exercise.

So, I'll add that to the other 2, as I've long suggested all human behavior can be resolved down to any one, or a combination of these 3.

1/ Self preservation.
2/ Self propogation.
3/ Self gratification.

The Spiritually enlightened person.. a person renewed in Christ, will overcome these 'self' centred values and become Christ centered.

"I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" Gal 2:20

I disagree with Sells that belief will settle on simple monotheism without Church teaching.. no, it will head towards Animism/ Superstition.

Interesting article. Like many introspections on the scriptures the logic resembles a mobius strip.

Whatever your faith it's difficult to believe that anything apart from wilful ignorance would cripple natural science.

Spider,
It is a pity you had not studied history. To make a statement "monotheism was a forced introduction to faith by the Roman Catholics whose grasp for power swept the globe". Nonsence! The polytheistic Roman Empire gained power long before Christianity was ever known.

The Roman Church did and still does teache most of the theology of Zoroaster on dualism. i.e. The presence of two opposing powers to affect moral change in the Earth.

Christianity totally places the moral default of man as the personal choice and responsibility of man alone; not some spirit being; to uphold otherwise is dualism. Islam despite all its retoric about monotheism teaches the reality of the spirit person - Satan. Mohomad claimed to have communed with him. Jesus never communed with a spirit, he was challenged by Jewish zealots (Matt 4)and their sympathisers (Peter and Judas and those Jews opposed to Roman occupation).

Spider your knowledge of the history of theology you obviously gained from Bart Simpson - the following from your post is simply nonsence _ "The Jewish faith did not believe in only one God until they were pressured by the oppressive church. 'Jehova' is two names in one, one being male figure, the other female. The Star of David originally two triangles. Male's pointing up, the female's pointing down."

Philo you are wrong , Constantine began by persecuting pagans and Gothics. Constantine increased the butchering of Christians in the stadium ie fed to lions which continued for another few hundred years. The people of the Roman empire were forced into Christianity by the sword. Jesus afterall was based on the Roman martial cult of Chrisos (mithras) soldiers already worshipped what after Constantine became Jesus. The rise of Christ was certainly a bloody afair especially where indigenous European religions were tenacious. The Roman Catholic church continued persecution of the pagans for many hundreds of years. Pockets still survive in North East Europe. The Christian idol of Satan is based on antipaganist propaganda mocking pagan gods. Roman Catholicism and its child protestantism continued persecuting each other and others until 2007 in which both still interfere with earthly politics.