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Originally Posted by JohnPlace  Mark, I did not intend my "less than generous" remark to relate specifically to the person who does not know that cheating is wrong. I meant it to relate to your view of anyone who turns to religion for answers. |
Ahh, then I'm sorry, I didn't intend my remark regarding turning to religion to answer the question of cheating to apply to anyone who turns to religion
for other reasons. In the specific case of the man concerned about cheating, no, I'm less than generous. But in the general case of understanding the way to live a good life, yes, I think religion can help.
There is wisdom in religion and so it's beneficial to turn to it for some answers. So I agree, there are more subtle moral questions than that of cheating. Perhaps those questions would serve as better examples. (as a side note, this is a pet peeve of mine regarding many books which use anecdotes to illustrate an important point. The anecdotes are invariably an obvious example which does nothing to clarify the point being made)
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Originally Posted by JohnPlace Furthermore, this picture that I may have unintentionally painted of "spiritual" people as sheep is niether accurate nor fair. |
I didn't think you were painting that picture.
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Originally Posted by JohnPlace Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnPlace If a person honestly believes in a God (take the Christian God for example), and he truthfully believes that this one all-knowing God possesses the one and only correct answer, then he may, in fact, be seeking truth, not just attempting to avoid making his own decisions. | Agreed, but I don't believe this person, and the person unsure about the morality of cheating, are the same... Or at least if they are, he never went to Sunday school and slept through all the readings and homilies. | It's getting kind of hard to follow this debate (I think we need nested includes), but I'll do my best here. Those Sunday School Lessons, readings, and homilies may have been the vehicle through which he was first introduced to the concepts of coveting and adultery. When the person becomes aware was not critical to my point -- at least, I don't think it was!  |
No I didn't think it was, nor was it my point :P
My point was that the man considering cheating is missing some key Christian values.
(voila, nested includes. They're a pain to write tho...)
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Originally Posted by JohnPlace Well, if you truly believe that logic should supplant spirituality as a means of finding answers in EVERY CONCEIVABLE SITUATION for EVERY PERSON, carry on. It's good to believe in something.  |
I can see how you formed that conclusion if you thought my comment regarding the cheating man turning to religion was directed as anyone turning to religion for any reason. Rest assured that I don't believe logic should supplant spirituality.
I believe that there is are contexts in which spirituality is beneficial, and there are contexts in which logic is beneficial. And sometimes they're the same, but in other cases, such as the cheating man, they're not.
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Originally Posted by JohnPlace And underneath the hood of all this, what we really have is human nature. |
And
this is ultimately my point; Spirituality is, at it's core, not about mystical, unfathomable, ethereal concepts. It's about human nature. All the rest is a distraction.
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Originally Posted by Liara Covert I find it fascinating how people can so easily be diverted from the core aspects of spirituality which supposedly link all religions together. Whatever happened to the idea of common good, love, peace and all that? Something happened somewhere along the way that drew new attention to the power of greed, lust, envy, pride, gluttony, and other vices.  |
See my previous comment
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Originally Posted by Liara Covert The dawn of the global age signaled the end of social isolation. What's next? |
Alien subjugation?