Down to earth practical beliefs about what though? And to pretend that so much in the way of destruction [human pain and suffering] has not revolved precisely around what “for all practical purposes” different folks have come to insist the faithful are obligated to embrace in the way of connecting the dots between behaviors chosen here and now and immortality and salvation there and then, is merely to posit that God and religion as you construe them to be in your head is “for all practical purposes” all you feel obligated to provide us in the of embracing your very own rendition of “ecological morality”.
Thus some folks are able to rationalize their belief that abortion is incompatible with a God, the God, my God, while others are able to rationalize their belief that denying a woman the right to choose abortion is incompatible with their own rendition of a God, the God, my God.
Meanwhile when I ask you to encompass abortion given the manner in which you have come to grasp the meaning of “ecological morality” what do we get?
Only this: that whether you condemn abortion or embrace it, protest the procedure or have one or perform one, God welcomes you into His Kingdom.
Whatever that actually means.
I would never ask you to believe otherwise. After all, what do I know of your own experiences? I can only ask you to describe them in detail and then to ponder the extent to which I might be able to experience something similar myself.
But here, in a philosophy venue, you are either able to translate what you believe into that which others are able [or even obligated] to believe, or you are not. And over and again I make it perfectly clear that to the extent that your beliefs comfort and console you, that need be as far as you go.
But, again, with so much at stake here, it’s not for nothing that the overwhelming preponderance of religious folks are very, very clear about one thing: Judgment Day.
And I am still at a loss to understand how exactly you make that part go away. How have your own personal experiences been able to convince you that, from God’s frame of mind, one size fits all regarding the behaviors that we choose on this side of the grave? Whether you embrace an ecological morality in the manner in which you prescribe and proscribe particular sets of behavior, or are a brutish sociopath wreaking havoc on anyone who crosses your path, you’re in with God.
Sure, this works for some. And, to the extent that it works for you, it seems an acknowledgment that yours is but one more existential leap of faith.
One that, here and now, I am not able to make myself.