Deep Freeze,
Of course but please, instead of using any religious figure to illustrate your point, can you concentrate on the offending organizations rather than the teachings themselves?
Whether you accept or not is beyond the point because you simply are. If you were raised in Russia you would be speaking Russian as your native language, your way of thinking would be Russian and your way of relating to the world would be Russian. You cannot expect to know how to cultivate a flower if you are not taught how. When you first went to school to learn your ABC’s and your 1-2-3’s you were not taught the reason why it is ABC or the reason for the existence of numbers. You are taught how to read and write and only much later in school life, if you have good teachers and you have cultivated the eagerness to learn, then you discover what is behind what you learned in First Grade. Is that True or False?
The fact that you automatically choose the example of Jesus, instead of Abraham or some Indian god shows that you are a product of your society.
You don’t have an idea of what is Good or Bad, Right or Wrong, unless you have your parents to teach you what is acceptable and what isn’t. Based on that assumption, if your parents don’t know what is Right or Wrong, you don’t know either because they never taught you. So you expect kids to know automatically how to behave? Can a baby nurse itself? Can a baby decide the course of his/her own life? No. Those are all actions that permit you to reach adulthood and are at the basis of your personal survival.
You are speaking as a fully aware, fully taught and fully molded adult, who according to his upbringing and life experience has been replying thus. Perhaps you believe that if all religion disappears from the Earth, that humans will be better off. I’m 50/50, not 100% on that one.
Every man is the extension of Law passed onto him. But as Guido pertinently stated, not every human being is progressive and wishes to evolve beyond selfish appetites and behavior. Many times, that type of destructive individuality will hurt those around him/her, especially when specific circumstances allow for perceived exemptions from duties and responsibilities towards others. Sounds a bit confusing what you said, though.
The soul doesn’t attract anything – if you say that, you directly contradict your Free Will assertions. Are we doomed to attract failure? Isn’t life a collection of failures and successes?
Life happens, that is all there is to it, and it’s good to know that there are people out there that can forgive and can lend a hand because of their principles, albeit religious. They teach by example, rather than by pulpit or by shaming. You can’t blame yourself all the time for your misgivings because the people you interact with have their own will too and sometimes that will is to hurt you. It is better to discern your friends from your foes than it is to live in regret of whatever you happen to say or do, especially when personally you know you are good and kind, mostly responsible and with a desire to evolve towards something better. But, if you never experienced good people and have never been taught to distinguish one kind of maggot from another, how will you know which one is poisonous or which one isn't?
Edited at: Friday, September 11, 2009 10:16:49 PM | 