Just how much financial tulip is Greece in?

[Mich the Tester]

This is what I have said about the Greek "crisis". More formally, why indeed should they be forced into a Northern European economic model?

I'm sure there are lots of people in southern Europe asking themselves this question now.

I lived in the south of Switzerland for quite a while; there you see the cultural differences between northern and southern Europe quite markedly. Literally, drive through a tunnel and on the other side of the mountain you have a different language and a totally different culture. Southern Europeans are NOT generally lazier than northerners; in fact when they work, many of them work very hard, but they don't believe in working, working and working until they drop as some in the north seem to do. They just don't really need continual economic growth. They do need to be able to adjust their currency to compete in manufacturing and in tourism, as Italy and Spain have done in the past.

[d000hg]

That would be the moral basis that it's okay to kill your own son if your god commands it? (just teasing, Abraham, he was just testing you!)
That it's okay for your daughters to get drunk and sleep with you? (Lucky Lot...)
That you are required to kill gays? (Leviticus 20:13)
That you should cut the hands off thieves? (Quran 5:38)
That if a woman gets raped it's her own fault unless there are four men to corroborate her story? (Quran 4:15)

With well thought out, balanced arguments like that who could possibly disagree?


Besides, world religions teach that morals exist because of God, regardless if you believe it or not. Saying atheists don't have morals is therefore not rational from a religious viewpoint.

On the other hand from an atheist viewpoint... life on earth is a savage and desperate struggle for survival. Morals are a man-made crutch for the weak who need something to help them believe life has some kind of point*, and of course without absolute truth right & wrong is purely subjective and therefore all morality is is a way to make life a bit easier.


*oh wait, that sounds like what atheists say about those who do believe in God. Swings & roundabouts, eh?

[threaded]

That would be the moral basis that it's okay to kill your own son if your god commands it? (just teasing, Abraham, he was just testing you!)
That it's okay for your daughters to get drunk and sleep with you? (Lucky Lot...)
That you are required to kill gays? (Leviticus 20:13)
That you should cut the hands off thieves? (Quran 5:38)
That if a woman gets raped it's her own fault unless there are four men to corroborate her story? (Quran 4:15)

Well, you might disagree with parts of these moral codes but they've managed to produce stable societies. Which is part of my point. If you start to pick and choose which parts of the moral code you'll adhere to is what has landed us with the banking crisis.

(Taking statements out of context or from poor translations doesn't help. The stuff about Leviticus and gays is a prime example: he was talking about temple prostitution not gay sex as such.)