Controversial Topic Discussion

I try to base my decisions mostly on philosophy, which is not religious in itself. My philosophy just so happens to have a religious foundation which I am not afraid to share. You can't have a scientific discussion about ethics...as archweasel pointed out in one of the other threads science is only there to help us understand the world in which we live. We need philosophy for any debate of this kind because science won't cut it. Looking at all the religions out there, most have a very common underlying philosophy about them; usually when following one, you can't help but follow all the others. These are summed up in the Declaration of Independence as the truths that we hold self evident quite nicely. I think, that if you look past the religious footnotes, you'll find the philosophy pretty straight forward.