Well, the decisions that concern me in regard to God and religion are the ones that revolve around the behaviors that the religious choose on this side of the grave insofar as that sustains their thinking about the fate of “I” other side of the grave.
I suggest that this is embedded and embodied in a particular self out in a particular world historically, culturally and circumstantially. And that it is considerably easier to choose “the right thing to do” if you are convinced that it must be in accord with “God’s will”. Or with respect to Buddhism whatever might be the equivalent of that re the “universe”.
But again: what particular decision in what particular context? Why are some choices easier than others?
To what extent are we able to demonstrate that the choice that we make reflects the choice that all reasonable and virtuous people are in fact obligated to make themselves?
For example, you may decide that you want to be rich. And there are clearly choices that you can make such that you either become rich or you don’t. But what if others insist that in becoming rich you chose behaviors that resulted in the exploitation or the impoverishment of others. That your behavior was immoral based on their own assessment of social and economic justice.
The part I root in dasein. The part others root in political philosophies that champion either capitalism or socialism. The part that still others root in one or another religious dogma.
Let’s focus then on another context relating to the manner in which we connect the dots between morality here and now and immortality there and then. Explore it. After all, what else is there in a philosophy venue? There’s what we think and what we do. Then the consequences of that for others. And, finally, our reactions to them. The parts I root in the manner in which we come to acquire a particular identity, out in a world of conflicting value judgments where, politically, rules of behavior are established and enforced. I’m interested in the components of your own thinking and doing here.
Okay, but what does does this really have to do with the point that I am making? And, in fact, on a thread devoted to understanding a particulat religious denomination, it is precisely the way in which morality can pose dilemmas for both believers and nonbelievers that most interest me. What happens when, say, a woman with an unwanted pregnancy is torn between reasons to abort the unborn baby and reasons not to. How do her religious values factor into her decision?
That is the component of religion that I am drawn to to. Why? Because her answer may or may not allow for me to question my own truly grim assessment. What does morality here and now and immortality there and then mean to someone like me? Someone convinced that human existence is essentially meaningless and that, one by one, we all tumble over into the abyss that is nothingness.
Well, what if that’s not true? All I can do is to explore this with others who are in fact convinced that it isn’t. What’s their story? Given the lives that they actually live from day to day.
As for you not being able to eat fermented foods, I’m not at all clear as to what you are saying here. You can’t eat it because it is prohibited by your religion? It is deemed immoral to eat it? If, in eating it, you’ll risk the fate that you want for yourself on the other side of the grave?