Jack the lad,
Your ignorance and immaturity of your own existence is showing.

I'll ask you one question. Why are you here? Answer that and you will identify your religion. A religion is a system of beliefs and practises on how you feel your person and society best operates.

Tell me what value does your personal life hold in the universe?

Also from my previous posting - on what occasions would you see fit to take anothers life?

Is your mind totally self absorbed or does it have a relationship to a community?

Theism deals with the existence of God, not religion. Though in theism it involves a set of religious behaviours that exemplify the nature of the God / gods you believe in.

What occupies your mind and what are the rituals of your life? That is your religion - your beliefs - your behaviours. Because it may be different to mine it is your world view - your set of practises. Your religion.

So Jack you believe your atheism has no values, no rules of behaviour, no guiding principles. Then you believe in self absorbed anarchy, reactionary undisciplined behaviour and total disrespect of others in society.

Religion is the status of values upon which a functioning society stands. So you are an anarchist, not far removed from the cave dwellers.

Philo

Jack the Lad probably has the same God as I.

My God is called "Conscience."

Conscience loves goodness and seeks only to do the right.

Some humans have a need to converse with mystical supernatural deities and a further need to adhere to the dictates of their holy books, which were actually written by mere mortals who claim to have had a hot line to heaven.

Conscience is guided by principles, handed down by generations and requires no scripts or assurances from supernatural deities.

"Religion is the status of values upon which a functioning society stands. So you are an anarchist, not far removed from the cave dwellers."

"Cave dwellers" eh, Philo?.

Ethics and kindness are the only requirements for evolved members to function in a successful society.

You may make much of your good deeds, however, atheists are just as altruistic as the religious.

However, many religious also contribute to a successful society whilst many fail to perform any kind deeds at all and remain on their knees praying solely for their own salvation whilst receiving favours from their influential connections.

Good to see dickie that you believe in altruistic principles of conscience. I believe then you would have a set of boundaries by which you live. Conscience gives us values those values are the nature of the god in whom we believe. The image of a man who eminates the highest of ideals of attitude, behaviours, actions, wisdom etc. To those high qualities we pay homage and endeavour to emulate.

These are the religious principles that govern the decisions we make regarding politics.

On the following what is your value of a human life and when is it appropiate in your opinion for it to be taken.

For instance: On what occasions in your society if any is the death penalty applied?
When one steals land?
When one steals property?
When one steals someone else's wife?
When one attempts to changes a tribal opinion?
When one defects to another tribe?
When one plans the overthrow of government or rules of that society?
When one murders another in that society?
When one plots with a neighbouring tribe?
There are no rules and killing is normal behaviour?
Take the life of an unwanted child?
Take the life of an aged and demented person?
Take the life of a deformed baby?
The death penalty is never applied under any circumstance?

In all these cases they are based upon a value system. Religion is the value system upon which a society functions. In the above example these are opinions or a set of values about an offending human life [if considered offending].

Philo, you really cracked me up when you accused me of 'ignorance and immaturity ' because of my atheism. I'm not the one relying on glorified fairy tales to justify my existence. Why am I here? You'd have to ask my father. As he's six feet under, maybe your god could resurrect him and ask him. What value my life to the universe? In the big picture, not a lot. The only time that I, personally, would take a life would be in self-defense ao at war.

As for 'So Jack you believe your atheism has no values, no rules of behaviour, no guiding principles. Then you believe in self absorbed anarchy, reactionary undisciplined behaviour and total disrespect of others in society.' - where did that come from? How do you infer these accusations? What's your basis?

You clearly live in a fantasy world. I suppose that's what blind faith does to you.

Jack,
You still haven't grasped what the term "religion" means.

You stated you have "no religion". That means no defined or ordered principles upon which you live. Such persons are anarchists. At least dickie identified his religion as - conscience. Though conscience needs educating in what is an acceptable behaviour in the society. Defining when killing is acceptable in one way to identify your values of a life.

Some people's consciences are offended if the death penalty is not applied in many of the cases identified above. It depends upon the values they have been raised with. One person's conscience in a civilised society is not always the best arbiter of justice. For if such were the case there'd be on criminals. Criminals feel justified in the actions they perform. In our society there are many groups who uphold death as a way of dealing with problem people. They have no guilt when implementing the death penalty in many of the above cases. Their conscience is perfectly clear. There are those that can euthanasia the elderly, abort unwanted children, kill with honour those family members that defect from or marry outside their world views.

Politics is about one's religion [principles and values of life]. They are inseparable as one's religion determines the nature of the laws you will implement.

As you stated you felt justified to kill if you were at war. This is not that simple, as you could be the aggressor or the defendant. The threat could be from a child soldier or a trained elite. Australian soldiers are primarily trained to minister peace not killing. They do kill in defence of their mission. So you see it is a political decision on what value they place on a life. The value and sanctity one places on a life will determine how one will treat an offender. That is why we adhere to the war crimes Act. Every life has value even if an opponent. That is why I have Christian friends who were aggressors against Australian soldiers in the Saddam Hussein Gulf war invasion of Kuwait.