Primitive nonsense does not deserve respect and has nothing to do with individual rights.

But whether or not something is laughed at depends on whether it is a serious question from someone genuinely interested in Ayn Rand's ideas or Bible thumping by someone who doesn't know or care the difference and with disregard for the purpose of this forum.

In the mystical religious sense there is none. The "soul" is used metaphorically for one's own sense of life or spirit (not the religious "spirit). We have rights as a moral recognition of our nature as rational beings, which requires being born, not because of genes in clumps of cells before they grow into a human being and not because of mystic spirits or souls proclaimed by religious mumbo jumbo.

There is no baby before it is born. A woman has a right to not have a baby.

Cooperating on common interests in politics does not mean endorsing fundamentally wrong ideology. This is a discussion forum on Ayn Rand's philosophy, not a political coalition on a candidate or legislation. Christianity is fundamentally opposed to Ayn Rand's ideas.

They don't change our view of life, but proselytizing its opposite is contrary to the purpose of the forum, obnoxious, and destructive.

America was founded on the philosophy emphasizing reason and individualism of the Enlightenment, which broke the grip of the Church on western thought. Christianity was the philosophy of the Dark Ages that suppressed human progress for thousands of years. Religion was not the basis of freedom from tyranny, which it imposed, and not the basis of science, which it also opposed and oppressed as its opposite. There is a long history of this. Faith, duty and other worldliness are the opposite of reason, egoism and freedom and the opposite of Ayn Rand's philosophy.

Please do not be confused about this. If you are attracted to the sense of life in Atlas Shrugged then find out what Ayn Rand's philosophy is and how it made Atlas Shrugged possible.

Ayn Rand's philosophy, including Galt's oath, is fundamentally incompatible with religious duty and faith in the supernatural.

But no one should think he has to or should want to take any kind of "oath" to discuss or ask questions about Ayn Rand's ideas if he finds himself attracted to Atlas Shrugged and wants to learn more.

You don't decide in advance to "become an Objectivist", like joining a club or a church and then finding out what it is like. You seek knowledge and try to understand all you can, then wind up being called whatever you are as the result of that process, usually years later.

Don't equivocate between religious faith as the foundation of fundamental belief versus the idea of faith as confidence something that is in principle possible. Faith at Auschwitz made no difference to those murdered and did not stop it.

How "sickening" a medical procedure makes you feel is not the standard of morality. The potential mother has a right to choose not to have a child and the years of responsibility that go with it.

Sacrificing to others on earth is just one of the fundamental tenants of Christianity. It is primarily other worldly, requiring faith and duty in accordance with dogma and sacrifice to the supernatural. There is no such thing as a rational version of any of that.

This is not the place to proselytize for religion, with or without competing closed buildings elsewhere. Ayn Rand's philosophy is the opposite of religion. You should find out what it is and how it made what you are attracted to in Atlas Shrugged possible.

Not believing in the supernatural is atheism, not agnosticism. If you don't know then you rationally don't believe, you don't rationally accept any arbitrary claim as "possible".

"Galt guy" and "Christian" are fundamentally incompatible. You should investigate Ayn Rand's philosophy to see what made the characters and their sense of life in Atlas Shrugged that attracted you possible and without which they cannot be defended.

Ayn Rand's philosophy covers all the major branches of philosophy and the fundamental questions of philosophy. Her political philosophy rests on that and depends on it. Her philosophy of reason and egoism is fundamentally incompatible with religion. Her philosophy is not restricted to the narrow issue of forcing unearned resources.

No, you can't change the meaning of concepts with a verbal shell game.

Ayn Rand admired Acquinas for his Aristotelian philosophy re-introduced into the culture, but not his theology.

See Leonard Peikoff's lecture series on the history of western philosophy.

By what standard of morality? Christian duty ethics is the opposite of Ayn Rand's.

Christianity is not the equating of anything you don't know for sure with religious faith.

Responsibility of parents to raise their own children does not require a mother sacrificing her life and well being for a child she does not choose to have. An embryo is a potential human being. It has no moral entitlement to be born regardless of the choice of the mother.

The Church does not regard a person's life as his own but as a gift from God and a duty to obey church dogma in the name of God.

Human life begins when it is born, not at "conception". We have rights based on our nature as rational beings, not because of genes in a cell.

Religion is not a sanctuary for the rational and was deliberately excluded from the Gulch in Atlas Shrugged.

Ayn Rand rejected religion at a very early age and had no difficulty seeing that faith and her philosophy were incompatible.

She tentatively included a priest named Amadeus in the early outlines of Atlas Shrugged for a few months in 1946. She admired Acquinas' philosophy re-emphasizing Aristotelian reason, but not Acquinas' theology, and had thought of showing the conflict within the character of a "glamorized" Acquinas-like (Thomist) philosopher fatally trying to combine reason and faith -- Amadeus was not the run of the mill mystic priest chanting in a self-imposed trance. He would have been the last to turn against the parasites, holding out from "pity" and forgiveness of evil -- the opposite of the motives of value-achieving characters like Dagny and Rearden -- with the priest illustrating the destructive moral grip of religion.

She said later that she quickly realized that it would have been an "impossible confusion" because all the other strikers represented "rational, valuable professions" and to include a priest would have "sanctioned religion" by implication. The priest had to go, and did so quickly and without confusion in her own mind. Hugh Akston, the rational Aristotelian philosopher, was in from the beginning and remained as one of the prominent early strikers.

See David Harriman's very interesting Journals of Ayn Rand, which contains extensive notes and outlines from the writing of Atlas Shrugged.

well, this little lizard is a dinosaur on my mother's side.
humility modifies pride, since I made a mistake once. . religion is a
source of experience from others' lives, providing some guidance
in cause-and-effect factual relationships. . optimism is a part of
my estimation of the wisest way to approach life among
other people. . I accept all objectivist ideas. -- j
.

I think of him as Sharkton. -- j
.

yes, and having no kids, I contribute to others' kids when I think that
they are being smart with the dollars. . need does not drive me at all. -- j
.