Very entertaining and engaging debate on the afterlife, all speakers are intelligent and witty. Hitchens was the stand out for me, never fails to make a debate lively. Enjoy!
Click here!
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Defining God
In order to have a proper conversation about God, we should first define what we mean by the term “God”. The different beliefs regarding God can roughly be broken down into 4 categories:
Theism is the term attributed to the belief in a personal God. God is believed to be actively involved in our lives by answering our prayers and blessing people at his will. It is believed one can have a relationship with God through prayer and worship.
Deism is still the belief that God was the first cause. However, deism entails that God is not actively involved in our personal lives; rather God set up the laws of the universe to function on their own and does not intervene.
Agnosticism is the belief that the answers are beyond our comprehension. The truth is either unknown or unknowable.
Atheism or anti-theism is the rejection of any personal God.
For the most part of this conversation, I will be defining and discussing God in the term which I think is most prominent and relevant in today’s society. That is monotheism, the belief that one personal God exists, created this universe and is actively involved in answering our prayers and watching over us. This belief is the corner stone of the three major religions of our world which include Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This belief is held dear and cherished by many. Again it seems I must stress that my aim is not to offend. For many God is a personal subject and a great source of comfort in people’s lives, I completely understand this. My search is simply in light of a truly honest enquiry to find truth. If you are easily upset by reading contrasting viewpoints about God then perhaps you should stop reading. If however you enjoy the freedom that accompanies sharing and conversing with others who share different viewpoints to yours, you’ve come to the right place! I suppose the next question that follows, what do I currently believe?
If you had asked me if I believed in God a few years back, I would have answered with an uncompromising yes! As a committed Christian, there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that God existed. I could have told you not only that I knew with relative certainty that God existed, but exactly who he was, what he wanted from you and why he made us, in other words, I thought I knew the mind of God and was quite happy to act as his spokesman. But as I was slowly forced by the outside world to justify my religious faith, it began to dawn on me that maybe faith on its own wasn’t enough. If my beliefs were really true than surely if I searched deep enough I could find something more solid. So I set out on the monumental task of finding proof for what I already believed. However as my search broadened, as I began to listen and read books about beliefs and opinions from all walks of life, and I as I gained a little more life experience about the world around me, bit by bit my certainty was stripped away from me until I was left with the position I hold today.
While I relate to deism in some regards, ultimately my position is agnosticism. I believe there is absolute truth; however I think that the answers surrounding the origins of the universe and God are currently beyond our comprehension. Rather like the mysterious world of micro biology was completely inconceivable to our ancient ancestors, who through lack of knowledge attributed disease to curses from the gods or evil spirits. Maybe in the future we will have a better understanding of our origins and truth will reveal itself, but until then I feel forced to withhold judgment. Ultimately I am a seeker, and I don’t feel I can be honestly searching for truth if I already have a definitive stance. So I just have to be honest with myself and all of you:
Does God exist?
... I don’t know.
And from my observations and studies of the many different world religions and views surrounding God, I doubt that any of us do. The fact that different cultures all around the world can form such radically opposing and conflicting beliefs about who or what God is tells us something important, the answer isn’t obvious! In my search I’ve talked and listened to a lot of really intelligent people with very different views of God. Muslims, Jews and Christians enter the conversation at different angles and through the ages have developed doctrines that assert claims that are incompatible with each other. Yet despite these incompatible doctrines I believe there is something at the core of our theological differences that needs to be addressed.
When you contemplate the great mysteries of the universe, you can’t help but wonder, what is all this? What’s it for? Unfortunately no one has concrete answers to these most mysterious questions. And through this mystery our beliefs are born. We call the collection of beliefs surrounding God theology, and when theology is organised and ritualised, we call this religion. Religion is simply the name we give to those competing spiritual ideologies that claim to know the truth about God and usually the right pathway we need to take in order to find salvation (Ironically salvation we need because of our religious beliefs). While some theology is without a doubt appealing and pulls on our emotional heart strings, we still can’t escape the fact that at the end of the day these beliefs arise from our ignorance of the world around us. Unfortunately, unlike science, we don’t have a good system to objectively asses’ the truth claims of theology. This is what makes many religions and denominations possible. Religious belief appeals to the unknown, and when we conceptualise the unknown and start throwing the word “personal faith” around, one can believe almost anything!
Now there is nothing wrong with having personal beliefs about God, meaning and the afterlife. I have them, and I think it can be argued that certain religious beliefs do genuinely give us a more consoling and optimistic view of the world. However, when people start slapping the word truth to their beliefs, when people begin to push their unjustified beliefs onto others in the name of God and when people begin to see themselves as somehow superior, saved or chosen above other human beings, is when our beliefs become tribalistic. And one of the biggest dangers we face in the 21st century with the rise of destructive technology, is tribal religion (I would include political tribalism in that boat as well). But I believe when religion is stripped down to its core, we find a belief system that is desperately trying to understand the mystical, the sacred and the spiritual aspects to life. Something I think all of us are trying to do in our own ways.
So while I wouldn’t say I believe in God, I would say I am open to the mystery that we call God. I just don’t feel the need to conceptualise God like so many religions do. Religions attempt to define God and in doing so place limitations on God that I don’t believe are necessary. Quite often we hear religious people claim that God can do anything, but when pressed with questions quite often retort to the limitations of their sacred texts or spiritual leaders. I’m quite content to just allow God to be whatever or whoever God is. If God so chooses to reveal truth to me then my heart and mind are always open. One of the most liberating experiences of my life was when I let go of my long held and cherished beliefs that all we know about God could be contained within the confines of an ancient, human constructed book, and began to honestly and openly search for answers free from limitations.
Another reason I shed my religious beliefs is because I wanted to start a fresh. I wanted to attempt to rid myself of any emotional or personal baggage that could possibly be blinding me from seeing the truth. I wanted to start from the beginning. I begin each of these conversations as a seeker of truth, as someone who does not have the answers but has plenty of questions. It is through questioning the world around us that has driven us to explore, and more importantly, discover!
Much love
Jase
Coming soon
Part 2: Science & God.
Theism is the term attributed to the belief in a personal God. God is believed to be actively involved in our lives by answering our prayers and blessing people at his will. It is believed one can have a relationship with God through prayer and worship.
Deism is still the belief that God was the first cause. However, deism entails that God is not actively involved in our personal lives; rather God set up the laws of the universe to function on their own and does not intervene.
Agnosticism is the belief that the answers are beyond our comprehension. The truth is either unknown or unknowable.
Atheism or anti-theism is the rejection of any personal God.
For the most part of this conversation, I will be defining and discussing God in the term which I think is most prominent and relevant in today’s society. That is monotheism, the belief that one personal God exists, created this universe and is actively involved in answering our prayers and watching over us. This belief is the corner stone of the three major religions of our world which include Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This belief is held dear and cherished by many. Again it seems I must stress that my aim is not to offend. For many God is a personal subject and a great source of comfort in people’s lives, I completely understand this. My search is simply in light of a truly honest enquiry to find truth. If you are easily upset by reading contrasting viewpoints about God then perhaps you should stop reading. If however you enjoy the freedom that accompanies sharing and conversing with others who share different viewpoints to yours, you’ve come to the right place! I suppose the next question that follows, what do I currently believe?
If you had asked me if I believed in God a few years back, I would have answered with an uncompromising yes! As a committed Christian, there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that God existed. I could have told you not only that I knew with relative certainty that God existed, but exactly who he was, what he wanted from you and why he made us, in other words, I thought I knew the mind of God and was quite happy to act as his spokesman. But as I was slowly forced by the outside world to justify my religious faith, it began to dawn on me that maybe faith on its own wasn’t enough. If my beliefs were really true than surely if I searched deep enough I could find something more solid. So I set out on the monumental task of finding proof for what I already believed. However as my search broadened, as I began to listen and read books about beliefs and opinions from all walks of life, and I as I gained a little more life experience about the world around me, bit by bit my certainty was stripped away from me until I was left with the position I hold today.
While I relate to deism in some regards, ultimately my position is agnosticism. I believe there is absolute truth; however I think that the answers surrounding the origins of the universe and God are currently beyond our comprehension. Rather like the mysterious world of micro biology was completely inconceivable to our ancient ancestors, who through lack of knowledge attributed disease to curses from the gods or evil spirits. Maybe in the future we will have a better understanding of our origins and truth will reveal itself, but until then I feel forced to withhold judgment. Ultimately I am a seeker, and I don’t feel I can be honestly searching for truth if I already have a definitive stance. So I just have to be honest with myself and all of you:
Does God exist?
... I don’t know.
And from my observations and studies of the many different world religions and views surrounding God, I doubt that any of us do. The fact that different cultures all around the world can form such radically opposing and conflicting beliefs about who or what God is tells us something important, the answer isn’t obvious! In my search I’ve talked and listened to a lot of really intelligent people with very different views of God. Muslims, Jews and Christians enter the conversation at different angles and through the ages have developed doctrines that assert claims that are incompatible with each other. Yet despite these incompatible doctrines I believe there is something at the core of our theological differences that needs to be addressed.
When you contemplate the great mysteries of the universe, you can’t help but wonder, what is all this? What’s it for? Unfortunately no one has concrete answers to these most mysterious questions. And through this mystery our beliefs are born. We call the collection of beliefs surrounding God theology, and when theology is organised and ritualised, we call this religion. Religion is simply the name we give to those competing spiritual ideologies that claim to know the truth about God and usually the right pathway we need to take in order to find salvation (Ironically salvation we need because of our religious beliefs). While some theology is without a doubt appealing and pulls on our emotional heart strings, we still can’t escape the fact that at the end of the day these beliefs arise from our ignorance of the world around us. Unfortunately, unlike science, we don’t have a good system to objectively asses’ the truth claims of theology. This is what makes many religions and denominations possible. Religious belief appeals to the unknown, and when we conceptualise the unknown and start throwing the word “personal faith” around, one can believe almost anything!
Now there is nothing wrong with having personal beliefs about God, meaning and the afterlife. I have them, and I think it can be argued that certain religious beliefs do genuinely give us a more consoling and optimistic view of the world. However, when people start slapping the word truth to their beliefs, when people begin to push their unjustified beliefs onto others in the name of God and when people begin to see themselves as somehow superior, saved or chosen above other human beings, is when our beliefs become tribalistic. And one of the biggest dangers we face in the 21st century with the rise of destructive technology, is tribal religion (I would include political tribalism in that boat as well). But I believe when religion is stripped down to its core, we find a belief system that is desperately trying to understand the mystical, the sacred and the spiritual aspects to life. Something I think all of us are trying to do in our own ways.
So while I wouldn’t say I believe in God, I would say I am open to the mystery that we call God. I just don’t feel the need to conceptualise God like so many religions do. Religions attempt to define God and in doing so place limitations on God that I don’t believe are necessary. Quite often we hear religious people claim that God can do anything, but when pressed with questions quite often retort to the limitations of their sacred texts or spiritual leaders. I’m quite content to just allow God to be whatever or whoever God is. If God so chooses to reveal truth to me then my heart and mind are always open. One of the most liberating experiences of my life was when I let go of my long held and cherished beliefs that all we know about God could be contained within the confines of an ancient, human constructed book, and began to honestly and openly search for answers free from limitations.
Another reason I shed my religious beliefs is because I wanted to start a fresh. I wanted to attempt to rid myself of any emotional or personal baggage that could possibly be blinding me from seeing the truth. I wanted to start from the beginning. I begin each of these conversations as a seeker of truth, as someone who does not have the answers but has plenty of questions. It is through questioning the world around us that has driven us to explore, and more importantly, discover!
Much love
Jase
Coming soon
Part 2: Science & God.
Does God exist?
One of the biggest questions one can ask themselves on the subject of truth is:
Does God exist?
In fact, I think it can be argued that there is no bigger question. People define themselves, their beliefs and even their lives on this central question. For many God is as real as anything else in this world, to others the idea of God seems completely implausible. Our different beliefs concerning God have been the cause of some of the greatest conflicts in the world as well as being the source of much of the world’s greatest inspirations. All other questions about truth, morality and meaning seem to hang from this most important question, Does God exist?
No other question fascinates nor excites me more than this question. It is the subject of the vast majority of my reading and lies at the core of my desire to find truth. If there is a God, an eternal source to all that exists, than I can only hope that by trying to understand God to the best of my ability, I can perhaps get a little closer to truth. Of course the task ahead is well beyond me, and I wouldn’t dream that any of my thoughts would add or subtract too the millennia of human ideas and beliefs regarding God. But I believe with each new generation, the question must arise a new and we must search for answers ourselves. So I invite all to come and share in this important discussion. Whether you’re a believer, non believer or something in-between, your opinions and questions matter.
Because of the sheer number of topics covered when talking about God, I have decided to break my thoughts into several parts. The first part can be found here:
Part 1: Defining God
Much love
Jason
Does God exist?
In fact, I think it can be argued that there is no bigger question. People define themselves, their beliefs and even their lives on this central question. For many God is as real as anything else in this world, to others the idea of God seems completely implausible. Our different beliefs concerning God have been the cause of some of the greatest conflicts in the world as well as being the source of much of the world’s greatest inspirations. All other questions about truth, morality and meaning seem to hang from this most important question, Does God exist?
No other question fascinates nor excites me more than this question. It is the subject of the vast majority of my reading and lies at the core of my desire to find truth. If there is a God, an eternal source to all that exists, than I can only hope that by trying to understand God to the best of my ability, I can perhaps get a little closer to truth. Of course the task ahead is well beyond me, and I wouldn’t dream that any of my thoughts would add or subtract too the millennia of human ideas and beliefs regarding God. But I believe with each new generation, the question must arise a new and we must search for answers ourselves. So I invite all to come and share in this important discussion. Whether you’re a believer, non believer or something in-between, your opinions and questions matter.
Because of the sheer number of topics covered when talking about God, I have decided to break my thoughts into several parts. The first part can be found here:
Part 1: Defining God
Much love
Jason
Sunday, October 24, 2010
What does it mean to be sceptical?
How many of us dismiss ideas and claims simply on the basis of them sounding absurd or ridiculous? If were being honest, id say most, if not all of us. I suppose one could even say it’s natural to judge incoming information with our current understanding of reality. But is this what it truly means to be sceptical? To stand from the sidelines knocking down anything that we may have a pre conceived idea as being implausible or false?
We are all sceptical of something, whether it’s an area of religion, politics or science. But how many of us dare go to the trouble of actually putting in the effort of genuine research into what we are so sceptical of? How many of us actually know what we’re talking about when we say were “sceptical” of something?
Critical thinking is not the same as cynical thinking. This quote from philosopher Massimo Pigliucci explains this nicely:
“I think that a crucial aspect of being skeptical, of engaging in critical thinking, is not the idea that you reject claims because they seem absurd. That’s not being a skeptic, that’s just being a cynic. It’s just denying things for the sake of denying it. The idea of skepticism is that you inquire — that you do the work.”
I think we all owe it to ourselves to be a little more sceptical of the world around us.
If you’re sceptical of a political idea, then do the research from both sides. Look into the pros and cons. Equip yourself with a little background knowledge of politics and some of the mistakes made in the past.
If you’re sceptical of an area of science, such as evolution, then read books and journals from scientists in the field, watch scientific documentaries and lectures. Educate yourself on the arguments for and against.
If you’re sceptical of religion, read books from religious perspectives, research the history from both sides of the spectrum. Read the bible, read the Quran and if they say the only way to know truth is to ask God (Allah), then try it! Test out the claims. That’s what it truly means to be sceptical.
Don’t fall prey to the laziness of cynicism. Truth won’t be found by shouting blindly from the sidelines. Truth, if it can be found at all, will be found by honest, genuine inquiry.
Jason
We are all sceptical of something, whether it’s an area of religion, politics or science. But how many of us dare go to the trouble of actually putting in the effort of genuine research into what we are so sceptical of? How many of us actually know what we’re talking about when we say were “sceptical” of something?
Critical thinking is not the same as cynical thinking. This quote from philosopher Massimo Pigliucci explains this nicely:
“I think that a crucial aspect of being skeptical, of engaging in critical thinking, is not the idea that you reject claims because they seem absurd. That’s not being a skeptic, that’s just being a cynic. It’s just denying things for the sake of denying it. The idea of skepticism is that you inquire — that you do the work.”
I think we all owe it to ourselves to be a little more sceptical of the world around us.
If you’re sceptical of a political idea, then do the research from both sides. Look into the pros and cons. Equip yourself with a little background knowledge of politics and some of the mistakes made in the past.
If you’re sceptical of an area of science, such as evolution, then read books and journals from scientists in the field, watch scientific documentaries and lectures. Educate yourself on the arguments for and against.
If you’re sceptical of religion, read books from religious perspectives, research the history from both sides of the spectrum. Read the bible, read the Quran and if they say the only way to know truth is to ask God (Allah), then try it! Test out the claims. That’s what it truly means to be sceptical.
Don’t fall prey to the laziness of cynicism. Truth won’t be found by shouting blindly from the sidelines. Truth, if it can be found at all, will be found by honest, genuine inquiry.
Jason
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Great Moral Questions
This is another one of those big issues that just simply can’t be solved by one 22 year old in one blog post. But I am more than willing to open up the conversation and share some of my thoughts and views on morality and ethics. Feel free to add your own :)
Where do we get our morals from? Why do we feel guilty when we do something “wrong”? Why are compassion and love “good” and hate and murder “evil”? Under the banner of morality and ethics is a vast number of confronting and reasonable questions that one has to ask themselves.
So what is morality and where does it come from?
Morality through Holy Scripture,
Some believe our morals and ethics come from God through inspired scripture. That inside a certain holy text are the rules and guidelines God wants all humans to follow to live good moral lives. I have a few problems with this view. If you believe that God is revealed to us through the bible or the Quran for example. Then you have to account for the atrocities God commands of his people in the Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 3:3-7,
So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them - the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city - men, women and children. But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.
Joshua 6: 20-21,
When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Numbers 31:15 -18,
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he (Moses) asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
A common answer for this is we don’t have a right to judge God on the basis of who, when or how he chooses to end someone’s life. He is the author of life and therefore has the right to take it away as he wishes. Ok fair enough, I guess if God really did give us life it would be well within his right to take it away as he chooses.
BUT!
If the God that is the author of our moral intuitions is also the God revealed to us through Holy Scripture. Why is it so many of us are morally outraged at the previous scenarios ordained by God through scripture? The idea of slaughtering a baby, regardless of race or religion, is to me to most disgusting, perverted act any human being can commit and the very idea that a moral God would command such a thing is incomprehensible to me. Can you imagine the poor mothers screaming for mercy as “God’s people” came in chopping their little ones heads off? In human society today, when dictators come to power that bring nothing but misery and suffering to people and command the slaughter of woman and children, do we praise them and worship them? Do we say, oh well they have a right to do it? No, the actions make us sick to our stomach and we combine with the rest of the world to try and rid ourselves of such an evil. I think it’s fair to ask then why do we give God a free pass in our holy scriptures? Why do we turn a blind eye to this and refuse to call it immoral as far as our moral intuitions are concerned?
Who is really exercising their moral intuition here? Someone that just believes whatever is in Holy Scripture has to be true, or those of us that judge the individual actions by their own merit, according to our moral intuitions. Why even defend such passages? To me it’s pretty clear if there is such a "moral God”, he or she had nothing to do with the commandment to slaughter an entire population, this sounds like the typical work of an ancient tribalistic society justifying its thirst to squash its surrounding “enemies” who worship a different God and have a completely different culture. Why not truly exercise our moral intuition when reading scripture, accept the things we know are good, like the lessons on love and compassion that are clearly in the bible and Quran and put an end to the silly justification of moral acts so heinous they make modern day human dictators look like the Easter bunny!
Our Moral Conscience,
Our moral conscience and our sense of guilt play a large role in defining our moral choices. Is this too a gift from God to help us discern right from wrong? Maybe, but what we need to take into account is the differences in moral conscience between different cultures and religions. If a Muslim man missed one of his 5 prayers he is commanded to make throughout the day, I dare say he will feel a strong sense of moral conviction. If a Jewish man dishonours the Sabbath he too would feel a strong sense of moral conviction. Would a Christian or Hindu feel the same feelings of moral conviction or “guilt” over the same actions? I think not. So, does God have different rules of morality for different people OR is our moral conscience largely shaped by our culture and religious upbringing?
But the question still remains. How do we decide right from wrong?
Well I don’t think our moral decisiveness is quite as black and white as some would have us believe. Our moral intuitions arise from a myriad of different influences. Our family, culture, friends and our religious beliefs all play a huge role in defining what we consider to be moral and immoral. If we look throughout history our idea of what is “moral” and “ethical” has radically changed from era to era. Slavery used to be a big part of our dark history in the west and was only abolished in 1807, cat burning was seen as entertainment in France in the Middle Ages and even into the Renaissance, dozens of cats were thrown into a net and hoisted over a fire and burned alive to which people would gather around and laugh and clap. Polygamy was once common practice, the suppression of women’s rights and public executions as social entertainment have all played their role in Christian societies once upon a time. If our moral conscience comes from an absolute source, than why is it our concept of morality is a progressive process?
Even something you would think an obvious moral decision like murder can have two opposing sides. Take war for example, some people believe in just war, some people believe all war is immoral. Some people believe in an eye for an eye, some people believe in turning the other cheek. Some people believe that using embryonic stem cells is murder, some people believe it isn’t. Our moral conscience seems to be divided between us and very much influenced by varying forces around us and in my opinion cannot be used as an argument for the absolute. So is right and wrong nothing more than someone else’s opinion of truth? Do we then have a right to question each other’s morals and ethics? I think we do.
Morality from a practical point of view,
I believe morality like everything else on this planet has gone through a process of evolution. Society’s that discover that when people work together as a group, create good environments to raise healthy children for the next generation, have easy access to food and water and good relationships with their fellow neighbours are the kind of society’s that are going to flourish and prosper in this world. Those that don’t will be on the straight path to extinction. How long do you think a society will last if its moral code was “murder and steal from anyone you want?” My guess is not very long.
It should be no surprise than that the religions and cultures that have survived with us today are the ones that emphasize kindness, love and teamwork (At least within their own tribes). I suppose if you really wanted to you could argue that maybe this was God’s plan all along. Maybe he oversaw the process of moral revelation throughout the ages so we would truly know the difference between right and wrong, and the reason our morals are evolving is because they are moving closer towards Gods true enlightened values. Maybe, but a series of questions then arise about the kind of God that would allow us for millenia to kill each other and perform acts of unspeakable cruelty on our fellow human beings while idly watching from the sidelines. But I suppose this is still within the realm of possibilities. But whether God is the author of our morals or not still doesn’t take away the practical and rational reasons behind being kind and loving and the fact we SHOULD act this way towards our fellow human beings if we want to see all of us prosper in this world, and for now that’s good enough for me.
Conclusion,
If we strip away bit by bit our religious understanding of morality I think it’s pretty clear that when it comes down to it morality isn’t about trying to please God, it’s not about trying to make it to the pearly gates or from fear of burning in hell forever. When it comes down to it morality is about common human decency. It’s about both realising and acting on those feelings of empathy and compassion we all feel towards each other. As Sam Harris writes:
“No tribal fictions need be rehearsed for us to realize, one fine day, that we do, in fact, love our neighbours, that our happiness is inextricable from their own, and that our interdependence demands that people everywhere be given the opportunity to flourish.”
Is it any surprise that all the religions that are with us today have one connected theme throughout them all? It’s called the golden rule. And if you had to sum up morality in one sentence, this would be it:
Christianity: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12
Confucianism: “Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.” Analects 12:2
Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5,1
Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you.” Mahabharata 5,1517
Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” Sunnah
Judaism: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.”Talmud, Shabbat 3id
Taoism: “Regard your neighbours gain as your gain, and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss.” Tai Shang Kan Yin Pien
Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself.” Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5
But does it really matter where we draw our inspiration to be loving and compassionate? Shouldn’t the important part be in the actual actions themselves? Whether we draw our inspiration from religion, God, science, nature, philosophy or just a common understanding of what it feels like to be human. Whatever it is, just remember the thing that has brought us this far is the realisation that we are the same, that what I feel you feel also and the best feeling I know in this world is to love and to be loved, so i will do my best to return the favour. So whatever it is that inspires you to be a more tolerant, kind and loving human being, I say hold onto it, And let others do the same.
Peace,
Jason
Where do we get our morals from? Why do we feel guilty when we do something “wrong”? Why are compassion and love “good” and hate and murder “evil”? Under the banner of morality and ethics is a vast number of confronting and reasonable questions that one has to ask themselves.
So what is morality and where does it come from?
Morality through Holy Scripture,
Some believe our morals and ethics come from God through inspired scripture. That inside a certain holy text are the rules and guidelines God wants all humans to follow to live good moral lives. I have a few problems with this view. If you believe that God is revealed to us through the bible or the Quran for example. Then you have to account for the atrocities God commands of his people in the Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 3:3-7,
So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them - the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan. All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city - men, women and children. But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.
Joshua 6: 20-21,
When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Numbers 31:15 -18,
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he (Moses) asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
A common answer for this is we don’t have a right to judge God on the basis of who, when or how he chooses to end someone’s life. He is the author of life and therefore has the right to take it away as he wishes. Ok fair enough, I guess if God really did give us life it would be well within his right to take it away as he chooses.
BUT!
If the God that is the author of our moral intuitions is also the God revealed to us through Holy Scripture. Why is it so many of us are morally outraged at the previous scenarios ordained by God through scripture? The idea of slaughtering a baby, regardless of race or religion, is to me to most disgusting, perverted act any human being can commit and the very idea that a moral God would command such a thing is incomprehensible to me. Can you imagine the poor mothers screaming for mercy as “God’s people” came in chopping their little ones heads off? In human society today, when dictators come to power that bring nothing but misery and suffering to people and command the slaughter of woman and children, do we praise them and worship them? Do we say, oh well they have a right to do it? No, the actions make us sick to our stomach and we combine with the rest of the world to try and rid ourselves of such an evil. I think it’s fair to ask then why do we give God a free pass in our holy scriptures? Why do we turn a blind eye to this and refuse to call it immoral as far as our moral intuitions are concerned?
Who is really exercising their moral intuition here? Someone that just believes whatever is in Holy Scripture has to be true, or those of us that judge the individual actions by their own merit, according to our moral intuitions. Why even defend such passages? To me it’s pretty clear if there is such a "moral God”, he or she had nothing to do with the commandment to slaughter an entire population, this sounds like the typical work of an ancient tribalistic society justifying its thirst to squash its surrounding “enemies” who worship a different God and have a completely different culture. Why not truly exercise our moral intuition when reading scripture, accept the things we know are good, like the lessons on love and compassion that are clearly in the bible and Quran and put an end to the silly justification of moral acts so heinous they make modern day human dictators look like the Easter bunny!
Our Moral Conscience,
Our moral conscience and our sense of guilt play a large role in defining our moral choices. Is this too a gift from God to help us discern right from wrong? Maybe, but what we need to take into account is the differences in moral conscience between different cultures and religions. If a Muslim man missed one of his 5 prayers he is commanded to make throughout the day, I dare say he will feel a strong sense of moral conviction. If a Jewish man dishonours the Sabbath he too would feel a strong sense of moral conviction. Would a Christian or Hindu feel the same feelings of moral conviction or “guilt” over the same actions? I think not. So, does God have different rules of morality for different people OR is our moral conscience largely shaped by our culture and religious upbringing?
But the question still remains. How do we decide right from wrong?
Well I don’t think our moral decisiveness is quite as black and white as some would have us believe. Our moral intuitions arise from a myriad of different influences. Our family, culture, friends and our religious beliefs all play a huge role in defining what we consider to be moral and immoral. If we look throughout history our idea of what is “moral” and “ethical” has radically changed from era to era. Slavery used to be a big part of our dark history in the west and was only abolished in 1807, cat burning was seen as entertainment in France in the Middle Ages and even into the Renaissance, dozens of cats were thrown into a net and hoisted over a fire and burned alive to which people would gather around and laugh and clap. Polygamy was once common practice, the suppression of women’s rights and public executions as social entertainment have all played their role in Christian societies once upon a time. If our moral conscience comes from an absolute source, than why is it our concept of morality is a progressive process?
Even something you would think an obvious moral decision like murder can have two opposing sides. Take war for example, some people believe in just war, some people believe all war is immoral. Some people believe in an eye for an eye, some people believe in turning the other cheek. Some people believe that using embryonic stem cells is murder, some people believe it isn’t. Our moral conscience seems to be divided between us and very much influenced by varying forces around us and in my opinion cannot be used as an argument for the absolute. So is right and wrong nothing more than someone else’s opinion of truth? Do we then have a right to question each other’s morals and ethics? I think we do.
Morality from a practical point of view,
I believe morality like everything else on this planet has gone through a process of evolution. Society’s that discover that when people work together as a group, create good environments to raise healthy children for the next generation, have easy access to food and water and good relationships with their fellow neighbours are the kind of society’s that are going to flourish and prosper in this world. Those that don’t will be on the straight path to extinction. How long do you think a society will last if its moral code was “murder and steal from anyone you want?” My guess is not very long.
It should be no surprise than that the religions and cultures that have survived with us today are the ones that emphasize kindness, love and teamwork (At least within their own tribes). I suppose if you really wanted to you could argue that maybe this was God’s plan all along. Maybe he oversaw the process of moral revelation throughout the ages so we would truly know the difference between right and wrong, and the reason our morals are evolving is because they are moving closer towards Gods true enlightened values. Maybe, but a series of questions then arise about the kind of God that would allow us for millenia to kill each other and perform acts of unspeakable cruelty on our fellow human beings while idly watching from the sidelines. But I suppose this is still within the realm of possibilities. But whether God is the author of our morals or not still doesn’t take away the practical and rational reasons behind being kind and loving and the fact we SHOULD act this way towards our fellow human beings if we want to see all of us prosper in this world, and for now that’s good enough for me.
Conclusion,
If we strip away bit by bit our religious understanding of morality I think it’s pretty clear that when it comes down to it morality isn’t about trying to please God, it’s not about trying to make it to the pearly gates or from fear of burning in hell forever. When it comes down to it morality is about common human decency. It’s about both realising and acting on those feelings of empathy and compassion we all feel towards each other. As Sam Harris writes:
“No tribal fictions need be rehearsed for us to realize, one fine day, that we do, in fact, love our neighbours, that our happiness is inextricable from their own, and that our interdependence demands that people everywhere be given the opportunity to flourish.”
Is it any surprise that all the religions that are with us today have one connected theme throughout them all? It’s called the golden rule. And if you had to sum up morality in one sentence, this would be it:
Christianity: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12
Confucianism: “Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.” Analects 12:2
Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5,1
Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you.” Mahabharata 5,1517
Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” Sunnah
Judaism: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.”Talmud, Shabbat 3id
Taoism: “Regard your neighbours gain as your gain, and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss.” Tai Shang Kan Yin Pien
Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself.” Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5
But does it really matter where we draw our inspiration to be loving and compassionate? Shouldn’t the important part be in the actual actions themselves? Whether we draw our inspiration from religion, God, science, nature, philosophy or just a common understanding of what it feels like to be human. Whatever it is, just remember the thing that has brought us this far is the realisation that we are the same, that what I feel you feel also and the best feeling I know in this world is to love and to be loved, so i will do my best to return the favour. So whatever it is that inspires you to be a more tolerant, kind and loving human being, I say hold onto it, And let others do the same.
Peace,
Jason
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Life after death
My View on Life after Death,
Since I’ve finished reading, eternal life: A new vision by John Shelby Spong. The thought of life after death has been on my mind a bit. So I thought I would post a few of my current thoughts about it.
Since reading the book my thoughts about life after death haven’t really changed all that much. I still don’t know and most probably never will until the day I die. I was however delighted to read that John Shelby Spong does. He was as I’ve mentioned in my review, a little unclear on WHY and WHAT he believes there is, but I’m happy he does and I know that will give a lot of people hope.
I really do understand the reasons and the hope that believing in life after death brings. I know because I used to believe it! I used to believe as a christian, that as long as I accepted Jesus as my lord and saviour, and lived according to his words I would be ‘saved’ and granted eternal life in heaven. MANY people still believe this, and I have no desire to take away anyone’s hopes because I know how much that belief meant to me at the time. When you completely give yourself over to the idea that you will live on after death and really believe it, (regardless of how you arrive at that belief). There is a sense of calm that is bestowed upon you. However I think the reason we cling so closely to the idea that we will live on through death, is because of our fear of death and the pain of losing loved ones. Let’s face it; death is a pretty scary thought! Does it hurt? What does it feel like? What happens? There are so many questions.
Another reason so many fear death, is because of the religiously programmed idea of hell and punishment. Our natural fear or death coupled with religious ideas of hell and punishment can have devastating effects on people:
(http://www.thebeautifulheresy.com/2006/04/my-story.html)
To me the notion of heaven and hell, reward and punishment is just too conveniently manufactured too suit those with authority and power. "Work for us, behave, do what we say and you’ll go to heaven, if you don’t do what we say, you’ll be tortured in hell forever" Fear is one of the best tools for controlling the masses and no one does it better than organised religion.
But death only becomes scary when we look at it through a lens of fear. I’ve discovered that you don’t need to put all your faith and hope into a religious idea to free yourself from the fear of death. When you take a deep breath, accept that one day you will die, that death is a part of the great cycle which is life and that no one knows what awaits us after we die. I think we put ourselves in a far better position to face death.
In some ways I still hope there is life after death. I hope if there is that I’m going there! Because that means ill get another chance to be with my family and friends and if God is there I can only imagine the conversations we will have. But am I going to build my life around this fantasy? No, because I understand there is absolutely no evidence for it. I accept this as my hope and my hope alone. I tend to keep this hope at the back of my mind because to me what is more important than what could or could not be in the next life, is the life I know I have right now! I would much rather spend my time enjoying this life and thinking of ways to make this life even more enjoyable for others and our future generations. I actually think an absolute belief in the afterlife takes away a lot of the meaning this life has. If our sole purpose for this life is to make it to the next one, well than what the heck is the point of this one!
Another issue I have about the afterlife is the eternal aspect. I mean the initial thought is nice, but when you really think about it. Do we really want to live forever? I mean... forever!!! Not like 10 billion years, or even:
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999 years.
But FOREVER!
Once you had experienced all there was to experience what would you do? What would happen to creativity or the excitement of experiencing something NEW? What would you do after you had every conversation there was to have, seen all the sights there were to see, answered all the questions to be asked and felt all the emotions to be felt an infinite amount of times over. Wouldn’t this get horrifically tedious? Another issue I have is the concept of no sin, pain or suffering in the afterlife. Either we exist in the afterlife as robots unable to do wrong, or we are given free will mixed with eternity. Do the math!
Humans + free will + eternity = CATASTROPHE!
Is no life after death really something to be afraid of? I don’t think so. In the infinite amount of time before any of us were born, before our bodies and our brains were formed in our mother’s womb, we did not exist. We were officially “experiencing” no life before life. Is it safe to assume this state of non existence continues after our brains have stopped functioning and our bodies have decomposed? I think it’s very possible. Does anyone remember any sense of pain or suffering? Does anyone remember being in distress or any uncomfortable state what’s so ever? I don’t. This isn’t to say this is definitely what happens after we die. I honestly don’t know! But I personally give this outcome the highest score of plausibility. And I’m ok with that : )
People might say “well if there is just nothingness, what’s the point?” Maybe the point to life isn’t about a selfish struggle to try and gain eternal life, maybe the point to life is to live in the NOW and experience all that we can with the time we have, maybe the point to life is to pass on all that we have learned to our children so that they can do the same and continue the beautiful cycle that is life!
So for the time being I’m quite happy to just sit back and enjoy the ride and make the most of this life. If there is an afterlife I’m very curious and look forward to it, if there isn’t, well than I’m thankful for the time I’ve had. : )
Either way I guess we all have to wait to find out right?
Since I’ve finished reading, eternal life: A new vision by John Shelby Spong. The thought of life after death has been on my mind a bit. So I thought I would post a few of my current thoughts about it.Since reading the book my thoughts about life after death haven’t really changed all that much. I still don’t know and most probably never will until the day I die. I was however delighted to read that John Shelby Spong does. He was as I’ve mentioned in my review, a little unclear on WHY and WHAT he believes there is, but I’m happy he does and I know that will give a lot of people hope.
I really do understand the reasons and the hope that believing in life after death brings. I know because I used to believe it! I used to believe as a christian, that as long as I accepted Jesus as my lord and saviour, and lived according to his words I would be ‘saved’ and granted eternal life in heaven. MANY people still believe this, and I have no desire to take away anyone’s hopes because I know how much that belief meant to me at the time. When you completely give yourself over to the idea that you will live on after death and really believe it, (regardless of how you arrive at that belief). There is a sense of calm that is bestowed upon you. However I think the reason we cling so closely to the idea that we will live on through death, is because of our fear of death and the pain of losing loved ones. Let’s face it; death is a pretty scary thought! Does it hurt? What does it feel like? What happens? There are so many questions.
Another reason so many fear death, is because of the religiously programmed idea of hell and punishment. Our natural fear or death coupled with religious ideas of hell and punishment can have devastating effects on people:
(http://www.thebeautifulheresy.com/2006/04/my-story.html)
To me the notion of heaven and hell, reward and punishment is just too conveniently manufactured too suit those with authority and power. "Work for us, behave, do what we say and you’ll go to heaven, if you don’t do what we say, you’ll be tortured in hell forever" Fear is one of the best tools for controlling the masses and no one does it better than organised religion.
But death only becomes scary when we look at it through a lens of fear. I’ve discovered that you don’t need to put all your faith and hope into a religious idea to free yourself from the fear of death. When you take a deep breath, accept that one day you will die, that death is a part of the great cycle which is life and that no one knows what awaits us after we die. I think we put ourselves in a far better position to face death.
In some ways I still hope there is life after death. I hope if there is that I’m going there! Because that means ill get another chance to be with my family and friends and if God is there I can only imagine the conversations we will have. But am I going to build my life around this fantasy? No, because I understand there is absolutely no evidence for it. I accept this as my hope and my hope alone. I tend to keep this hope at the back of my mind because to me what is more important than what could or could not be in the next life, is the life I know I have right now! I would much rather spend my time enjoying this life and thinking of ways to make this life even more enjoyable for others and our future generations. I actually think an absolute belief in the afterlife takes away a lot of the meaning this life has. If our sole purpose for this life is to make it to the next one, well than what the heck is the point of this one!
Another issue I have about the afterlife is the eternal aspect. I mean the initial thought is nice, but when you really think about it. Do we really want to live forever? I mean... forever!!! Not like 10 billion years, or even:
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999 years.
But FOREVER!
Once you had experienced all there was to experience what would you do? What would happen to creativity or the excitement of experiencing something NEW? What would you do after you had every conversation there was to have, seen all the sights there were to see, answered all the questions to be asked and felt all the emotions to be felt an infinite amount of times over. Wouldn’t this get horrifically tedious? Another issue I have is the concept of no sin, pain or suffering in the afterlife. Either we exist in the afterlife as robots unable to do wrong, or we are given free will mixed with eternity. Do the math!
Humans + free will + eternity = CATASTROPHE!
Is no life after death really something to be afraid of? I don’t think so. In the infinite amount of time before any of us were born, before our bodies and our brains were formed in our mother’s womb, we did not exist. We were officially “experiencing” no life before life. Is it safe to assume this state of non existence continues after our brains have stopped functioning and our bodies have decomposed? I think it’s very possible. Does anyone remember any sense of pain or suffering? Does anyone remember being in distress or any uncomfortable state what’s so ever? I don’t. This isn’t to say this is definitely what happens after we die. I honestly don’t know! But I personally give this outcome the highest score of plausibility. And I’m ok with that : )
People might say “well if there is just nothingness, what’s the point?” Maybe the point to life isn’t about a selfish struggle to try and gain eternal life, maybe the point to life is to live in the NOW and experience all that we can with the time we have, maybe the point to life is to pass on all that we have learned to our children so that they can do the same and continue the beautiful cycle that is life!
So for the time being I’m quite happy to just sit back and enjoy the ride and make the most of this life. If there is an afterlife I’m very curious and look forward to it, if there isn’t, well than I’m thankful for the time I’ve had. : )
Either way I guess we all have to wait to find out right?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Philosophy
My current view of Philosophy,
“By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.” – Socrates
I know its a little cliché to start a philosophy post with a quote from Socrates, but I just couldn’t resist this one. One of the things I love about philosophy is the simple fact than anyone can become a philosopher. You don’t need to spend years at university and bucket loads of cash, you just have to think! If you’ve ever thought about the meaning of life, morality, logic, God, truth, or where that one sock goes in the washing machine, I would like to informally congratulate you on your entry into philosophy!
Philosophy is one of our oldest forms of searching for truth and stretches back far through the ages of our history, long before we had the tools, technology and methods of modern science, to a time when literally all we had were our thoughts. While no one ‘invented’ philosophy, the term is believed to have been coined by the famous Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. The word ‘philosophy’ literally means ‘love of wisdom’. It is no surprise then that we find most of our earliest recorded and most famous philosophers from ancient Greece.
In my pursuit of knowledge I have found philosophy to be very helpful, engaging, wonderful, and at times humbling.
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates (I know I know, again with Socrates.)
I’m still learning a lot about philosophy, in fact in a lot of ways I’ve really only just begun. But the more I look and search into it the more I’m fascinated with it. There is always something new to learn about the world and about ourselves.
Never stop thinking!
“By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.” – Socrates
I know its a little cliché to start a philosophy post with a quote from Socrates, but I just couldn’t resist this one. One of the things I love about philosophy is the simple fact than anyone can become a philosopher. You don’t need to spend years at university and bucket loads of cash, you just have to think! If you’ve ever thought about the meaning of life, morality, logic, God, truth, or where that one sock goes in the washing machine, I would like to informally congratulate you on your entry into philosophy!
Philosophy is one of our oldest forms of searching for truth and stretches back far through the ages of our history, long before we had the tools, technology and methods of modern science, to a time when literally all we had were our thoughts. While no one ‘invented’ philosophy, the term is believed to have been coined by the famous Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. The word ‘philosophy’ literally means ‘love of wisdom’. It is no surprise then that we find most of our earliest recorded and most famous philosophers from ancient Greece.
In my pursuit of knowledge I have found philosophy to be very helpful, engaging, wonderful, and at times humbling.
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates (I know I know, again with Socrates.)
I’m still learning a lot about philosophy, in fact in a lot of ways I’ve really only just begun. But the more I look and search into it the more I’m fascinated with it. There is always something new to learn about the world and about ourselves.
Never stop thinking!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)