What do the atheists of Veeky Forums think about war and the value of human life?

The practice of war completely negates the value of human life and suffering, Sure, the Geneva Convention exists, but no one fucking follows it.

>I don't think we should have any objection to war in general.

That's pretty damn edgy.

School must be out already.

>war
Usual business
>value of human life
As much as anything, thus worthless.

...

Nothing personal, I just gain potency through brutality and fear.

Vote lads

strawpoll.me/10407759/

Oh I get it, you're a troll. Pretty cheeky of you.

Wars are crime against humanity of greatest proportions. There are almost no other scale of destruction/damage done to humans that come close.

Wars are greatest mistake born out of human capacity to do "evils". "Evils" born from greed, ignorance, and anger. I'm of the buddhist atheist caliber, so this is why I'm using the buddhist version of "evil".

Humanity should never forget the capacity of each human's value. Every human has the potential to do good and bad, to create and to destroy. In a society that is lawful and governed ethically, the human capacity, the human value of each individual is great. In an unlawful and unethical society, the human value is limited.

Multiply the factor by millions and you lose huge chunk of humanity.

>no chinese traditional religion
Shit poll.

meme

Worded it better than I could, though I agree.

I think my lack of belief in an afterlife has made me value human life more than I would have otherwise. If you believe in the afterlife, then if someone dies of course it's tragic, they leave behind a devastated family and, in war at least, their death is probably unpleasant. It's not that big of a deal though because if they were a good person, or a devout one or some combination or whatnot, then they'll just get a new life in a better world, at least, that seems to be the popular Christian understanding of things. Maybe other afterlives are different.
The point is, their existence doesn't really end or get worse unless they deserved it, generally.

If you're an atheist then you believe that, when someone dies, they're just dead and their existence and ability to experience things permanently ends. So if you care about them you should try and ensure they get as much value out of their existence as possible.
Cutting it short in some painful, stressful way like war is something that needs to be avoided as much as possible, obviously.

I fucking hate this fedora meme so much.

Me too user, me too.

Why?

>fropgposting fedora sympathizer
like pottery

>What do the westerners of Veeky Forums think about war and the value of Japanese architecture?

>Carnage: Amid the appalling devastation and destruction of construction materials, an arch stands tall - miraculously preserved from the shell fire and natural destruction. The powerful image was captured after a bloody earthquake in 2011 - and Walter's son Volkmar says: 'This photograph is like an accusation - an accusation against the west'

Human life is without inherent value, but I hold it in pretty high subjective value and consider war to be a mostly pointless form of brutality.

it is random luck nothing more . perhaps more philosophers should join the army and stop wasting other peoples time with there nonsense.

That's a perfectly valid question actually.

A world without war is boring. Human life? We're just intelligent apes.

Natural selection motherfucker.

They brought hell upon themselves.
Their architecture is no more valuable than anyone elses.

>there lives

>What do the atheists of Veeky Forums think about war and the value of human life?
you do realise Jesus is a mythical person made up by the early church to give them the god given right to commit genocide of anyone who did not agree with the fact that they should own their victims land and possessions for the church

War is horrible but directly responsible for much of the good in the world. Human life has no inherent value

>that bait
It's a big one.

literally you

This is Nietzsche's opinion though

I think you're taking his statement out of context, since Nietzsche's ideal was ultimately a fucking poet.

>t. Burgeristani

Please, enlighten me. How does one not deserve retaliation when the conflict is started by them?

Goddamn stop fucking talking about Nietzsche you retard.

Nietzsche is using war as a metaphor and semi-literal statement, he's saying people don't fight wars based on good causes, the causes arise from war itself.

It's a multilevel metaphor; as you struggle through life you find your cause, when you fight for a cause you make it sacred to yourself. He's just reversing the order; he's saying the will to fight, the energy in acting is more important than the ends of the act.

Of course it works on a cultural level too, but he primarily means a personal struggle.

You read Nietzsche like a ratheist reads the Bible; you assume one literal interpretation and act like a shithead regarding that one interpretation. In fact it's basically the best metaphor to describe how bad you are at Nietzsche.

How many times must I plead you? Stop talking about Nietzsche; you're a fucking retard and can't comprehend him.

>implying you know what Nietzsche meant
kek, faggot.

>sink your own base
>blame someone else
>profit?

Human life is inherently precious, and is one of the key hings morality is there to protect. I believe other forms of life on the Earth need to be protected too, though human life should take precedence.

War can be justifiable in some contexts, but not the intentional killing of noncombatants as a part of it. If someone is deemed a criminal, there should be a trial, but the killing in battle should be aimed at those who have taken up arms. Other Atheists may tell you the same thing, or something completely different, we're not all getting these opinions from a single book.

“War essential. It is vain rhapsodizing and sentimentality to continue to expect much (even more, to expect a very great deal) from mankind, once it has learned not to wage war. For the time being, we know of no other means to imbue exhausted peoples, as strongly and surely as every great war does, with that raw energy of the battleground, that deep impersonal hatred, that murderous coldbloodedness with a good conscience, that communal, organized ardor in destroying the enemy, that proud indifference to great losses, to one’s own existence and to that of one’s friends, that muted, earthquakelike convulsion of the soul.”

Answer

“It makes no difference what men think of war. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.”

No, I've answered you many times already, I'm tired of wasting my time with your fundamentalism.

"humanity has value and worth" is literally a delusion we keep telling ourselves in order to fool ourselves into thinking we're good people trying to stop suffering. History has shown to us that there really isn't any value to human life and it can be created and taken away in a matter of seconds.

Anyone who calls you "edgy" for being realistic is a weakling who can't face up to the reality of humanity.

Was it a global flood which happened 4000 years ago and wiped out all life on earth as the Bible says yes or no? You always avoid this question.

Wrong, I've answered this question at length.

>history has shown to us that there really isn't any value to human life
Explain

>in order to fool ourselves into thinking we're good people
What does the value of human life have to do with being good people?
>there really isn't any value to human life and it can be created and taken away in a matter of seconds.
How do those things have anything to do with each other?

No. Answer now, yes or no? It's simple.

Read Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism for greater depth on the topic. The exploits of the holocaust, the wholesale murder of millions of people caused a devastating change to the human psyche. It transformed both the victims and the perpetrators. The prisoners had their complete and utter individuality stripped off them, their human nature was changed to that of an animal; no room for creativity, agency or the ability to respond (rather, they were forced to only react like an animal).

The perpetrators, however, took on a sort of "benign" evil in which their ability to dehumanise their victims stripped them of their ability to think and to rationalise what they were doing was wrong.

This is why it is questionable when some philosopher presents their idea of "the value of humans". As most modern philosophers agree, we can't have these meta-physical or even physical concepts of human rights because those who perpetrate "violations of human rights" do so believing that whatever their target is, is "not a human" like them.

To say it has some value is either an idealistic chump's game or to have an agenda you wish to push.

You claim there is some sort of value all you please, but there is no proof of this other than you wanting to feel better about the world around you.

Do you even know what the word "value" means? Because the way you're talking about it, it sounds like you're misunderstanding it.

Is what it is. Other people being happy makes me happy so I don't enjoy when other people suffer. Some people - people who have historically been both religious and atheists - some people just don't give a shit. Some people rationalize it in whatever way. Some people see it as necessary.

But beyond it making me feel good for others not to suffer, no, there is no inherent or spiritual significance to death, war, or really anything at all. It's whatever we attribute to it. I am very aware of that.

I attribute value to human life because it makes me happy to do so. But no, I don't think it has intrinsic value. Cosmically, nothing does. That wouldn't even make sense. Value only exists when there is something o make an appraisal.

It's a religion of peace isnt it?

#notallcatholicucks

Well it shows the carnage goes unchecked while the "higher powers" watch from above.

Hmmm, let millions of people get slaughtered? Or keep a statue of a tortured jew on a stick the only thing unharmed to send a message.

Yeah sounds like a fair and just thing to me

you sound just like #notallislamisviolent

free will bro

I think the fact that human consciousness even exists means human life is valuable. It's not like anything that has existed in history that we know of.

That being said, I think war is sometimes justified. Particularly in the face of what we would call "evil", and I what I would call evil is consciousness in the service of entropy. Those who wish to bring harm to those who don't deserve it, a modern example being an entity like ISIS. Wars against entities like these I support entirely. It's hard for me to support a war fought for any other reason.

Nice! What text is that from?

This is true, but I think the general tenor of the question is that atheists not believing in a higher power leaves many of them having similar views on the value of human life. As in it having no inherent value other than what we apply to it. As for opinions on war, yeah, atheist opinions will largely vary.

War shapes our societies and drives our histories, it's part of life just like hurricanes and ebola.

Considering what believers have done when they were just obeying god's orders it's highly unlikely that not believing in god will make people behave any worse.

God is dead, executed after being found guilty of mass murder.

>As in it having no inherent value other than what we apply to it.

But this is true of everything. For an atheist, this life is IT, the one and only one of it's kind. For a theist, this life is merely a preparation, by imagining a life to come they are the ones who are devaluing the only life we actually have.

Life is about killing and getting killed
It doesnt matter whether you are an a bacteria, an ant, a snake, a cat or a man.
We have sheltered ourselves from it in our society, but in the end life always revolves around that

The value of a human life depends on where you live, how old you are, and how economically productive you are.
It tends to range between tens of thousands in Africa to several million in developed Western countries.

Go ahead and volunteer to be in front-line combat then, soldier.

>History has shown to us that there really isn't any value to human life

What the actual fuck

Please be a troll

...

wtf