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What does god mean?
The creator.
And if he is your creator then you should have a purpose of your creation. Find out what's the purpose of your life and TRY to live by that code which is usually an effort of bringing a fair balance in life, and everything you do.
"Live a good life"
Yes, you should live a good life,
but who decides what's "good"? I am sure Hitler must have believed he lived a "good life" and so did mother Teresa.
The biggest crooks in our politics and many corporate CEOs must also believe they are living a good life, going back 200 years, many slave owners must brag about the number of slaves they have, and enjoyed living a "good life" by legally having thousands of slaves providing free labor, those Europeons who killed millions of native Indians to grab the American Land must also be very proud and have believed that they lived a "good life", and so does the many bigot religious leaders from all faiths who have made 100 and millions of dollars by making a fool of masses, those leaders and pastors and Imams, and Molivies and Rabbis and Pandits etc must also believe they are living a "good life" since they are meeting the goals which they have put forth for themselves, and not how God wanted them to live their lives.
Yes, we do have an inner instinct that helps us differentiate between good and bad but if we are solely to decide what's good then there is bound to be many differences among people of different parts of the world, may be there will be differences between people of the same country, or same city or same Neighbourhood or even in a same house where folks will differe between what's good and what's bad.
What's good for you may be good for you but it may not be good for many others. So what actually is good?
Someone has to decide what's good for ALL, and that's God.
My young friend, God is not unjust, it's human being who is.
When I was a kid I remember some elders used to pray to God that
"O' God, I don't need your justice, I need your mercy. (Because if you do justice to me then I may very well land into trouble because ALL OF US HUMAN beings have done something at least once in our lives that was either unjust to someother fellow human or it was a sin in the eyes of God).
Have you read the Bible? God has no problem whatsoever with slavery, genocide, or land grabs. God has done all of those things Himself.
If you believe those things are not "good", then you must have gotten that idea somewhere other than from God.
Again...why would you expect a deity to embrace YOUR standard of right and wrong? What makes you think that he would judge you according to what YOU say is good? If there is a God, does it not make sense that HIS standard is what you want to consider?
Clearly, the God of the Bible does not embrace my standard of right and wrong. For example, I believe that rape is wrong, even if you pay her father for her afterwards.
I'm not southernbored, whom you quoted, but I have an answer for this and always have. My answer is: It's the other way around. Since supposedly man was made in God's image I would naturally assume "our standard" of right and wrong and God's would, overall, match.
I'm not sure why anyone would think otherwise.
I saw someone above respond to an idea I had also responded to earlier (the quote above ^ ) and it actually never got answered, so I thought I'd bring it up again.
Why wouldn't we assume our and God's moral code and standard of right and wrong to match on all the basics...considering we were supposedly made in God's image?
I can't see any reason for them not to match. If we were made in God's image, at least roughly, we should mirror God, as much as a mortal possibly could, anyway. And it's not outside of the capacity of a mortal to think that genocide is wrong, murder is wrong, etc. Correct? Yet almost on the tip of his holy tongue telling US not to do these things, God DOES do them...and even, sometimes, orders them done. (Ummm what?)
I hear the "God's ways is not our ways" fallback constantly around here but it makes no sense that God's ways at least in their very basics - including a moral code of conduct - wouldn't be our ways (or at least our ideals; ways we'd wish to be in order to be good people)...unless either God didn't make us in his image, or God is a hypocrite, or God is very confused.
And as far as the standard semi-threatening fallback "God isn't answerable to YOU...worm" (okay, I ad-libbed with "worm" there...the "worm" isn't stated...only implied ) which turns things around and is disingenuous, IMO...obviously we are NOT saying God should be "answerable to" us...we are saying that his own laws should apply to him...OR it's hypocrisy. How does that translate to God "being answerable to" any of us? What we're expecting from a god is that it would follow its own rules. I hardly think that means attempting to yank the god around by a chain hooked up to its nose or something.
You are thinking of God as a human being who is answerable to you.
No. She is thinking of God as a moral being who is answerable to His own morals. He has taught us what those morals are and He should never violate them. That men have reported that He did should raise big red flags about the veracity of the reports.
Ok, so I recently posted a quote by Marcus Aurelius that sums up my beliefs quite perfectly. I was wondering what you all thought about it?
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
This is more or less exactly what I live by. I came across this quote a few years ago, and have used it to explain to people what my beliefs were since then. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't believe the way I do because of the quote, it is simply an easy way to describe it to people.
What do you think about it? Sound reasonable? Any faults in it?
I cannot respect you more. You blow my mind with your positivity even though you are living in a bible belt state. Some day if I relocate to Alabama, I hope that I will meet more people like you.
The quote you posted is beautiful. The philosophy is similar to Buddhism, my birth religion. Although I don't practice Buddhism any more, I still believe in doing good simply for the goodness' sake.
Living in the States for 12 years, I feel so blessed with the freedom I'm enjoying. At the same time, my worry grows a bit when I see Christian fundamentalists become more aggressive. If I am a straight, Caucasian, Christian man, I wouldn't be concerned. Fortunately, people like you are still the majority, at least in California. I feel safe for now. Thank you for your open-mindedness.
I cannot respect you more. You blow my mind with your positivity even though you are living in a bible belt state. Some day if I relocate to Alabama, I hope that I will meet more people like you.
The quote you posted is beautiful. The philosophy is similar to Buddhism, my birth religion. Although I don't practice Buddhism any more, I still believe in doing good simply for the goodness' sake.
Living in the States for 12 years, I feel so blessed with the freedom I'm enjoying. At the same time, my worry grows a bit when I see Christian fundamentalists become more aggressive. If I am a straight, Caucasian, Christian man, I wouldn't be concerned. Fortunately, people like you are still the majority, at least in California. I feel safe for now. Thank you for your open-mindedness.
Thank you, khminh!
The Bible Belt does have quite a few flaws, but believe it or not, there are quite a few people around who have similar ideas to my own. I was born and raised here in AL, with a long stint in TN as well, and the people are generally very nice and down to Earth. You do have a few crazy fundamentalists, but they seem to be in the large minority. Unfortunately, these are the ones you always hear about, which colors the state in a bad light.
I do understand what you mean about the increase in aggression from the fundamentalists however. I have heard it described as "death throes" before, and that could be accurate. They are getting more and more aggressive as other religions (and the non religious) are making headway. They are a dying breed. Even here in the Deep South Bible Belt, the majority of Christians are making their way towards the more accepting and tolerant churches.
Again, thank you for your kind words, and if you ever do make it to AL, I would be happy to show you the REAL Alabama!
No. She is thinking of God as a moral being who is answerable to His own morals. He has taught us what those morals are and He should never violate them. That men have reported that He did should raise big red flags about the veracity of the reports.
As the mother of 2 children, I can say that if I raised them with the moral code of do as I say not as I do, I would have earned no authority or respect from them. I wonder that god gets respect for doing effectively that.
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
What do you think about it? Sound reasonable? Any faults in it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel
yes there are faults in it
the fault is in claiming reason is supreme, rendering Divinity unnecessary
reason is a helpful tool, but it is limited and it is not enough
Tzaphkiel, your post is complete nonsense. Nowhere does he claim reason is supreme.
He just says to live a good life, and if there is god and an afterlife, he or she can decide what to do with you.
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) which turns things around and is disingenuous, IMO...obviously we are NOT saying God should be "answerable to" us...we are saying that his own laws should apply to him...OR it's hypocrisy. How does that translate to God "being answerable to" any of us? What we're expecting from a god is that it would follow its own rules. I hardly think that means attempting to yank the god around by a chain hooked up to its nose or something.
