Otherwise, you might find yourself ignored.
Then get on with the business of ignoring me. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of text to fully flesh out ones point. Since you haven't really been making any points (and have instead opted to simply call me "religious" every chance you get), I can understand how this might be foreign to you.
It would be helpful if you would cite a particular example of something I've said you consider to be an insult. I should point out that even if you feel you've been insulted, it's not good form to return the barb.
I have to imagine you are being purposefully deceitful here, in feigning ignorance. I have already many times pointed out that you are using terms like "religious" and "atheist" purposefully to evoke emotional response. You are weaponizing them, in other words. Please... please just go ahead and TRY to tell me that you haven't been calling me "religious" in attempts to "get my goat!" in attempts to rile me up, and call me something you think you know will be offensive to me. Please just try and tell me you haven't been doing that. It is so obvious that your little "I'm innocent" song and dance here is just wacky. You're worse than any theist I have ever come across who utilizes the same tactic. That is, one who says that atheism is "like religion." They at least are conscious of what they are doing, such that any time I have pointed out to them that they are attributing something dear to their hearts (religion) with something that irks them (atheism), they understand the link, and have (every time) conceded that their intention is not to disparage religion - which means it was most definitely to disparage atheism instead - thereby tacitly admitting that their intent included using "religion" as a derogatory term.
If you wish to distance yourself from the religious, then calling your morality more acceptable or more sensible than other moralities won't cut it because what is acceptable or sensible is strictly a matter of opinion.
Not when there is a stated goal it isn't! It simply
isn't. For example, as soon as you state a goal for "morality" of "maximizing health and freedoms" (just as an example) then there are OBJECTIVE comparisons that can be made against various activities or situations that will cast them as "moral" or "immoral" according to that criteria. So, lopping off someone's head, for example, would not be "moral" because it doesn't "maximize health and freedoms" of that individual. Do you understand? And here, within our discussion, in order to widen the scope of what we mean by "moral" to include something like "don't use The Lord's name in vain," we'd have to make the stated goal of morality be something like "maximizing health and freedoms of individuals and not angering God." However, there is the rub! Right there, in the statement of the goal itself! We have 100% concrete evidence of the existence of humans, and complete understanding and experience with freedom/health and lack thereof. We have ZERO good evidence for the existence of God! A prescription of morality like that may as well instead be: "maximizing health and freedoms of individuals and not hindering unicorns in their secret runs across the land". Seriously... the statement may as well be that if you invoke God into it. So this silly game you are playing at isn't going to work. Exactly what I have been saying... some prescriptions of moral action don't make sense, and the goals you would need to ascribe morality in order to include the nonsensical in its scope are themselves nonsensical! As in, they do not conform to reality. And they aren't about to make sense just because you shout the word "opinion!"
But you are a someone dictating right and wrong every bit as much as any priest or prophet. Based on what you are saying here, you set yourself up as a special person proclaiming a special morality that is above and beyond that of others. I fail to see you as inherently different from Moses in that regard.
Nope. I am not "dictating" anything. I am saying that certain prescriptions of "right" and "wrong" simply CAN'T make sense. Or, that is, needn't make sense to any particular person. And if you can't display the intrinsic worth of something like that, which you literally DO want to dictate to them, then you aren't being rational to expect them to toe your line. Have I said what we MUST adhere to as moral prescriptions? I've given some pretty easy, low-hanging-fruit examples that you would display yourself as "immoral" to a good number of human beings were you to go against them - things like murder, slavery, rape, etc. But I have not once stated that those things MUST BE included in the scope of what you, or anyone else, consider "moral." It is all relative... however there are those items that a vast majority of humans are going to accept as "immoral" - and specifically because they OBJECTIVELY break lines with some pretty well-accepted stated goals of "morality." And then there are the items that one must CONVINCE others to accept as moral or immoral. Like any religious prescriptions that involve how we "treat" God. And how convincing can those entreaties be, honestly? They can't be, at all. Only to the most ignorant and gullible among us can they be compelling - because there is no good evidence for God. There is the same quantity and caliber of evidence for God as there is for unicorns. So if you include how you treat God in our ideas of morality, then you'd better sign up unicorns as well. And leprechauns, and vampires and dragons while you are at it.
If you wish to argue that you are different in kind from the religious, then your own attitude and behavior are relevant to that claim and are fair game to be scrutinized.
This entirely depends on your definition of "religious!" From what I have been experiencing in this thread, your definition seems to have wide and varying meanings, and encompass quite a lot of people who just "do things." And so, perhaps I
am religious by your definition. What happens now? Do I suddenly have to come to terms with my own contradictory nature and submit to your "superior line of argumentation?"
If that's all you have to say in response to my pointing out the similarity in defensiveness between atheists and the religious who get that way whenever the harmful potential of their beliefs is noted, then you concede my point.
Once again (I find that I keep having to repeat myself with you... quite a bit actually. Are you just not reading, or are you forgetting? Maybe you are willfully ignoring the bits that don't fit your chosen script/narrative?), you calling me "religious" is not having the effect you apparently desire. A few posts ago, I stopped any and all attempts to reject the label. I simply don't care. I am religious! Do you hear that everyone!?!
I AM THE MOST RELIGIOUS PERSON ON THIS SITE. ALL THE REST OF YOUR ADHERENCES AND MAINTENANCE OF PRINCIPLES PALE IN COMPARISON TO MY SUPERIOR RELIGIOSITY!!!! YOU HAVE FAILED WHERE I HAVE SUCCEEDED! Now... can we finally try getting back to the point?
In what way exactly does your behavior differ from the religious morally speaking?
My ideas of morality, and my actions, do not include items that are based on what cannot be produced in reality any more than known fictions can. I simply don't include those things. And therefore I am not to be found behaving ridiculously in this way. My moral prescriptions maintain a clear line of citing and propagating health and wellbeing of living things. This can, most certainly, stray into the realm of inanimate objects as much as their existence and ongoing "wellbeing" (of a sort) affect the wellbeing of animate/living things. I do not stray into prescriptions involving Gods, or unicorns, or vampires, or leprechauns. Were those things to
actually present themselves, then I would
easily and readily amend my moral principles. There are TWO differences there. One - the religious tend to include as-good-as-imaginary items in their prescriptions of morality and WANT EVERYONE ELSE to do the same, and Two - the religious tend not to want to amend their moral ideas in any way, shape or form - that is, until they have been beaten about their heads for long enough by the rest of the world that they get tired of it and relent.
Are you more openminded than they are?
In ways, yes. They are more open-minded to ideas for which the evidence amounts to nothing more than hearsay and whose ultimate objects of ideation are no better than fictions. I am more open-minded to real world evidence and applicability of items or knowledge as pertains to the reality we experience. So, for example, many religious people in my community are fairly closed on the idea of "evolution", and yet believe that God does things like cause Covid because He is upset with human beings' behavior. Whereas I am very open-minded to ideas of evolution and items surrounding it, due to the staggering weight of evidence that has been presented to me, and I am more closed on the idea of God having enacted various detriments to human kind due to His anger because 1. the evidence for God is found to be extremely lacking in my estimation, and 2. it is not sensical to believe that a good and loving being would enact secretive retribution on those He loves without even so much as telling them why He is doing various things.
Are you more willing to accept constructive criticism than they are?
Probably, yes. I can easily, and have done so very often, jump right into the deep end of a conversation on any topic, and maintain utmost civility (physically that is, hahahaha) as well as not back out due to feeling too "embarassed" or "uncomfortable." My feelings have absolutely nothing to do with the topic, or the discussion surrounding it. I understand this, so I am less likely in the first place to even feel those things - even when being criticized - and even less likely to act dramatically on them. But how easy is it to imagine a religious person storming away when their ideas are challenged too vigorously and they find themselves unable to produce enough convincing argumentation to present themselves and their position as they would ultimately like to? How easy is it to imagine a religious person "just not wanting to hear it anymore?" You won't see me saying that. You just won't... because I am not as sensitive to such things. Not at all. Therefore yes, I would say I can receive (not necessarily act upon, but at least receive) constructive criticism much more readily.
Do you value truth and reason over pet ideas more than they do?
Obviously... hence the reason I will not go around spouting off about things that I am not certain exist within the realm of reality and can be displayed to be such. Just like my stating of moral ideas, and that I tie them specifically to goals that make sense toward the actual definition of morality. Can we say that just about anything is right and wrong? Sure. But does it make sense to try and force such ideas on people when you cannot, in any way, demonstrate the benefits of doing so (nor detriments of not doing so)? How could that possibly make sense? Would you argue that such a thing
DOES make sense? Would you? I ask you.