Religion, morals, and survival

[Regs]

In these days finding people to use moral, ethical, and just judgment is hard to find. All we have today is a race who are afraid to go against the established system because it is human nature to conform with their culture and if they don't they are shunned. "If I don't do it, someone else easily will". It's true, and for the longest time, most of us did not see the systematic and insidious cogwheels moving in place in our culture that lead our nation to this breaking point. This system we live in a nation where 1% of the population controls the wealth but if you're thinking I support socialism, you are sadly mistaken. I'm actually in support of a human trait far more important than any political affiliation or structure.

Humans believe in symbolism, and the ultimate symbol that was ever contrived by human mind was the formation of a superior being. Is it real? Maybe - maybe not, but can you imagine a world that never believed in it? It was the very fear of a God(s) that made cultures orderly instead of chaotic. Sure, many wars were fought, many innocents were killed in the name of their religions and gods, but in reality, what has changed since then? We still fight and kill over paltry beliefs, values, and misconceptions.

To think that nothing has changed over the centuries knowing that our rationality and technology has grown demonstrates that there's a much more sinister underlying problem in our race. Our race is limited by the very fact we are afraid of our own survival. It is the underlying cancer that eats at our paranoid souls each day. The rich protects their wealth thinking that the poor will revolt against them, the poor think the rich is out to starve them, the religious fundamentalist thinks we are trying to force them into a different way of life, the Jews are trying to control the worlds banks to leverage their control, and the list goes on. It has become a cyclic downward spiral of a new beginning. We simply have grown too many and too paranoid and there will be no easy answer.

I predict a second coming. Before you write me off as a crazy, hear me out. This second coming will manifest in more than just a man with wings - but a new era of thought process and faith. If there was no faith or moral fiber, the weak would still be today in bondage and in slavery, and there would be only one man ruling the world.

All rational and logical thought has lead me to believe there is no magical man in the sky keeping a watchful eye. Though, in beneath the very nature of this thought process, lies the problem. As humans, we cannot play gods just yet and it scares me to think that some people think they can, and it scares me more that nobody can keep these wannabe gods in check.

Whilst their might be no god or heaven above us, what of our survival? Our very human nature is to survive, and it is written into our very genetic code. If there is no after-life, can you imagine how much more paranoid and greedy our human counter-parts would be? Ambition without moral direction and only for the lust for power and survival becomes the most destructive force our race has ever seen.

It seems as I grow older, that the crazy people with signs hanging over the their shoulders on the corner of 6th and Broadway, were actually the real geniuses of the world and figured it out way before their time. Then again, it's the same crazies that refuse the very system that fails us now, and the very same system that shuns them today.

 

[Tristicus]

Hm..

 

[Moonbeam]

I lost everything when I was young, every single thing I worshiped or loved, every belief that gave life meaning. I lost all belief in heaven. I lost all sense of meaning. The whole world turned black and hopeless. I gave up and died. I disappeared.

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Moonbeam arose from those ashes and he hasn't stopped laughing since.

 

[Steeplerot]

This movie sucks, a winged man? No gatekeeper/keymaster? no dogs and cats living together? no stay puft marshmallow man out to eat sinner NYC? No cool cars either. meh.

 

[dmcowen674]

I predict a second coming.

Hell have been here all along

 

[sandorski]

Problem is that Religion is not about Morals. It's about Control, the Morals are optional to those who wield the Control.

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ that seems to be Regs's point, worship of the FSM is a good thing because it keeps the sheep under the control of His Noodly Appendages.

Of course we could accomplish the same thing with control chips, shock collars, and a bit of the old ultraviolence.

 

[Moonbeam]

^ that seems to be Regs's point, worship of the FSM is a good thing because it keeps the sheep under the control of His Noodly Appendages.

Of course we could accomplish the same thing with control chips, shock collars, and a bit of the old ultraviolence.

Both are worthless. The only basis for morality is self love and that is why you find so little real morality in the world.

Because people hate themselves they have no self respect and because they have no self respect they don't know what self respect is. They do not know the single most valuable thing in the universe, the feeling of self worth. Without self worth there is no satisfaction or happiness, just the gratification of endless needs, the pouring from the empty into the void.

He who loves himself needs nothing in the way of emotional gratification. To love yourself is not to bask in the sun but to become a sun that pours out love.

All religion is about reaching that state and all religions have been perverted by self hate away from that aim.

Man didn't invent God. Some occasionally discover Him hidden in their own hearts. To love is to end separation.

 

[Regs]

He who loves himself needs nothing in the way of emotional gratification. To love yourself is not to bask in the sun but to become a sun that pours out love.

All religion is about reaching that state and all religions have been perverted by self hate away from that aim.

Man didn't invent God. Some occasionally discover Him hidden in their own hearts. To love is to end separation.

Hm.

To reach emotional gratification ,as you describe it, is ignoring the very nature that humans are social beings. For instance, if you isolated anyone of us for an extended period of time - separating knowledge transfer, value passing, and human contact - I guarantee you will have a very emotionally unstable being.


Therefore to reach such self love or gratification, one must conform with their culture or feel as one with them. Which is why many did not pick their religion but grew up with it.


I'm not all grim and despair however. Their is a temptation or corruption that all men must resist for the prosperity and longevity of their race. If they can resist "sin", I believe most government structures will succeed.

 

[cwjerome]

Whilst their might be no god or heaven above us, what of our survival? Our very human nature is to survive, and it is written into our very genetic code. If there is no after-life, can you imagine how much more paranoid and greedy our human counter-parts would be? Ambition without moral direction and only for the lust for power and survival becomes the most destructive force our race has ever seen.

These are interesting thoughts, very Hobbesian. I tend to think human greatness is at least partly the result of our fear of lonely, violent death. The preservation of life through building communities, creating "covenants" not to harm each other and generating authority to enforce this agreement is a reasonable thing to do in an otherwise state of nature with everyone versus everyone.

Afterlife or not, logic dictates relative safety trumps anarchy or the threat from dangerous, morally bankrupt individuals... our desire to be safe necessitates an enforcement mechanism. After all, nothing is easier broken then a man's word. That will to live and corresponding mechanism should mitigate the impact of ambitious destroyers.

As long as people value life and reason, we should be OK.

 

[Madwand1]

I predict a second coming. Before you write me off as a crazy, hear me out. This second coming will manifest in more than just a man with wings - but a new era of thought process and faith.

What little faith you show in presenting two as a crazy big number; not considering that there have been others before and since, and not least that a new era of coexistence of thought and faiths is already underway.

 

[Moonbeam]

Regs: Hm.

To reach emotional gratification ,as you describe it, is ignoring the very nature that humans are social beings. For instance, if you isolated anyone of us for an extended period of time - separating knowledge transfer, value passing, and human contact - I guarantee you will have a very emotionally unstable being.

M: You don't have the experience of knowledge to guarantee any such thing. Wondering alone in the desert had produced many a saint. But not having emotional needs for other people does not mean one needs to be or is alone.

R: Therefore to reach such self love or gratification, one must conform with their culture or feel as one with them. Which is why many did not pick their religion but grew up with it.

M: This is the ego talking. The ego isn't self love. The ego is self flattery masking self hate.

R: I'm not all grim and despair however. Their is a temptation or corruption that all men must resist for the prosperity and longevity of their race. If they can resist "sin", I believe most government structures will succeed.

M: There is no sin. It is a delusion. To resist sin is to give it life. It is to create violence and strife, dissatisfaction and fear. To fight against sin is how the devil wins. The ego is the fighter of evil. Did I tell you that the price of truth is everything you own that you value?

 

[piasabird]

Liberalism is the act of forcing sin upon every person with morals.

Morals are based on both civic and religious beliefs. If I tell you murder is wrong that is a Moral Belief, but it may or may not also be a religious belief.

 

[ebaycj]

Liberalism is the act of forcing sin upon every person with morals.

Really? That's honestly what you think?

 

[totalnoob]

Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just stupid). - Robert A. Heinlein

 

[Orignal Earl]

I lost everything when I was young, every single thing I worshiped or loved, every belief that gave life meaning. I lost all belief in heaven. I lost all sense of meaning. The whole world turned black and hopeless. I gave up and died. I disappeared.

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Moonbeam arose from those ashes and he hasn't stopped laughing since.

Orignal Earl likes this :thumbsup:

Goes along nicely with the OP's av too

 

[Orignal Earl]

Liberalism is the act of forcing sin upon every person with morals.

Morals are based on both civic and religious beliefs. If I tell you murder is wrong that is a Moral Belief, but it may or may not also be a religious belief.

You are going to be sooo bummed when they finish with the Muslims and Mexicans and start to come after the Mormons

 

[Atreus21]

Problem is that Religion is not about Morals. It's about Control, the Morals are optional to those who wield the Control.

Uh, bullshit?

 

[hal2kilo]

Really? That's honestly what you think?

I didn't see anything about communists this time though.

 

[Jaskalas]

Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful - just stupid). - Robert A. Heinlein

I think that is debatable.

A person who cannot look themselves in the mirror and feel happy or content is quite susceptible to committing the sin of harming others. A solid foundation starts with yourself. At making peace with yourself before making peace with others.