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If you believe that there some sort of moral truth and if your pursuit of said moral truth is sincere, what does arbitrariness matter?
If neither moral truth nor sincerity are present, who cares?
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True. It took drugs to cure me of Christianity. Seriously, it did.
a bigger gun
-Imp
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Have you ever asked yourself why people bother with religion when it is clear to you it is a non sequitor? Why millions of people would follow an organized movement dealing with an intangible force. It is amazing that so many people would waste their time with something once or twice a week that can do no earthly good for them. You ask these questions with respect in your capitalizations of God and Christian.
Is it convincing you want? You can’t find your answers if you don’t look in the right places or ask the right questions. As long as you do so in your terms, you won’t make much headway. Usually people who settle in a certain line of thinking, limit themselves. If you have atheistic tendencies, you limit yourself. I wonder if there are truly open minded people? Like a line Rush says, ‘even if you don’t choose, you’ve still made a choice’.
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I think the Christian(whatever that means)morality is one of, if not the finest example we have of moral systems.
When a ‘philosopher’ (whatever that means) begins to understand the Christian moral system, it may be best to know it is a ‘living’ system that evolves. Hence it was and still is mighty.
It is not the act of choosing a particular thing. It means if you choose not to make a choice, you have chosen not to decide. While the implication doesn’t set you on one or the other side of the fence, it puts you in an agnostic stance. Probably as close as you can get to an open minded situation. It’s impossible to be open minded about everything. Plus you have to be careful not to let the wind blow here and there like a feather looking for the answer. I am of a philosophic mind while having a Christian foundation. I empathize for people who struggle to learn about religion. As for the broader implicaions you speak of, that falls into the vein of subjectivism. How would it be possible for me to to explain God without tainting it with my views. Could you get a better answer placing one hundred people of one sect into a room to come to an agreement about views that have been winnowed through discussion. Perhaps getting a sampling like that could be more beneficial for your needs. A thought has occured to me that a dais of different religious sects could make themselves available for people to explain their creeds, interpretations of the Bible and thoughts of God before commiting to one. Ultimately it is a personal decision through purposeful selection which holds the key. There are things I close my mind off to due to the negatives they hold. I try to focus on positive oriented points of life. This is due my many years of trying to learn how people think and feel about life in general.
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quote: [size=75]It is amazing that so many people would waste their time with something once or twice a week that can do no earthly good for them.
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It seems to me a lot of you guys want to, in essence, do a ‘go around’ by getting directly to the source …but you (especially young people) seem to forget their is a learning curve in everything from physics to a video game…it’s no different in thought.
you cannot build a house in the sand thinking it will stand the test of time.
In this world you only waste your time when you allow yourself to get stuck in a rut. the goal you are after is not as important as the path you need to get you there…a path paved by experience.
there can be many differing layers of experience
each layer of experience…like rungs of a ladder…lead to the top.
the object in this game (as I see it) is to relax and enjoy the view from each rung, but keep climbing…until the ladder itself loses meaning.
an open mind understands above all else the rules of the learning curve
This particular passage you cite was meant to work in concert with the paragraph it came from…in a rhetorical sense. I am trying to use a little tact in expressing my thoughts on this subject. My thinking has tempered over time when I give views about religion. I don’t the have credentials (degree in theology) to give an air of arrogance. So, my statements carry no more weight than just being an opinion. Since I don’t have a direct connection to God’s mind I can’t know his whole intentions concerning how He wants to be related to others. If I have read your statement incorrectly, I apologize.
I had explained that getting to know God is a personal experience for each individual. A lot of instances shape how others view religion. Personally, I think a non-denominational church without a set of ritualistic creeds is the best way to worship. Just focus on the scripture backed up with prayer is sufficient.
Because real beliefs have real consequences. Go read the laws of hammurbi, etc, or any book on ancient history and cultures, if you beleive you can jump off a cliff and can fly, those are some pretty dangerous beliefs to have.
Do we even have to mention the social breakdown caused by the “us vs them” commandments in every holy book?
You have obviously NEVER seriously read the bible, and been explored deeply into religious territory.
Why do you need a church to worship god? Or is that a specific god?
I’ve never understood the reason why a god who knows everything, needs people to gather in a place at different times, and do stuff that is highly irrelevant to actually making the world a better place.
Quote: [size=75]I don’t the have credentials (degree in theology) to give an air of arrogance. So, my statements carry no more weight than just being an opinion.[/size]
In my world your statements will carry MORE weight than a theologians would…cause your more likely to speak from your heart…and not dogmatic doctrine…opinions work for me.
For me it’s for the fellowship and being in a greater presence of God. As for knowing everything, God does. We are His children and He wants as any parent I would suppose to to be with us. I wouldn’t that say that would be too much to ask. We can still make the world a better place even when we pay homage to the Lord. What you ask me to explain is hard when you don’t have a point of reference other than what I am trying to convey.
What is reasonable to one man is not to someone else.
It seems to me that your christian friend had the wisest thing to say there. That you must follow your own truth to seek your own answers. Wether or not you agree with abortion or not does not matter because you have been true to yourself and have not been swayed by someone else. If there is a God or some other governing force or none at all, you can know that what ever the truth you can be true to yourself.