This post is directly inspired by the What are your beliefs thread and is a reflection of The Good the Bad the Ugly Pt. II thread, though composed before.
Regarding, What are your beliefs (please see initial post), its impossible to vote as some questions are contrary in addition to the fact that one can believe in an amalgamation of questions 1, 2 and 3.
I'd like to ask the Atheist and Agnositics a question, if you all would be so kind as to answer, I thank you.
1) If there is no G_d, then, do you have a sense of morality, and what is it based upon and/or where does it come from?
2) Without G_d's morality, commandments and the consequence of Damnation, what then is your motivation for moral action and to live a moral life (presuming the general understanding of morality).
In addition, what would be the motivation for anyone to live a moral life? Wouldn't you agree that in a G_dless world, that anyone can then determine one's own definition of morality and conduct one's life accordingly? Would this NOT then result in a worldstate of Anarchy.
Given the realities of the above paragraph, and that Anarchy isn't appealing, then your Belief and Faith must reside in Government, and particularly, the Law--that is--the Legal System? In effect, from a religious point of view or a G_d view, then your Faith is in your fellow Man. Man who is without Morality or, at best/worst, defines his own, individual, Morality.
[Hmmm...the above might be a good description for Hell, an existence without Morality....hmmmm.]
Damnation is G_d's moral consequence. If one's Faith and Belief is in the Law, the obvious question, then, is where is the Law's moral consequence?
Can Man's Law define morality for all of man? The Law's consequence for immoral actions contrary to the Law is Prison, is it not? Yet, this consequence is escapable in a number and variety of ways; AND the Law's consequence is rendered inequitably. I would argue that this is the state in which we live (anarchanistic). The Law's consequence provides no true motivation toward morality for those, who, are willing and/or are capable of enduring or escaping the Law's consequence. Consquently, there is little or no habor nor ultimate protection for Man.
G_d's consequence, on the other hand, is absolute, inescapable and equitable. It serves as a moral compass and inhibitor to a degree that the Law, Man's Law, can NEVER serve.
Damnation is a strong (individual) motivator. What is the individual motivation for moral action under Man's Law? It can only be a sensical group attempt to forestall some or certain, presumably, accepted and agreed negative consequences to Anarchy. Yet, if any individual does not cede to the accepted or agreed (or the presumption) then he is morally free to define his morality and conduct his life and actions.
In addition to the individualist nature to morality, there is the group attempt at morality I mention above. The consequences of one group's morality differing from another group's has all too clearly been exhibited inumerably and devestatingly in history, and is, again, being played out on a world stage as I type and you read.
Such is the make of the Hilters of this world. While the Hilter's can be cited as an extreme example of the fallacy's of Man's Law, and are short-lived, the immorality that they've wrought is not, and to a far greater extent are the immoral actions of lesser Hitlers, those who define their own morality. There numbers are greater, there effect is cumulative and there is no Judgment day for them.
---
I also ask, if you believe in the concepts of Good and Evil (this does not have to be defined in a biblical sense, but in whatever worldly sense you prefer, but I ask the question in the generally accepted concept of Good and Evil)?
If there is, in fact, Good and Evil, how can it be defined? Without a *certain* (literal definition) moral base, can Good and/or Evil be defined and known? Doesn't Morality require a certainty.
----
IMHO, I believe that many who are without Faith or Belief, are so, greatly, because of a confusion between G_d and religion. The two are not the same and that's another thread....
Bookmarks