What’s moral and what’s not moral?

Well who am I to say who’s moral or not. I mean who can truly say what’s good or not. Well you may answer ‘Oh you’ll know. It just feels right or wrong’. True it does feel good to do “good” (whatever that is), and bad to do “bad” (again whatever that is), but why? Well if you look at the experiments of Pavlov, you’ll see the answer is conditioning. Well that’s partially the answer, and here’s why. The reason is that we are all told from a young age, or at least most of us, that certain things are bad and certain things are good. This develops or time and we see for ourselves what is right or wrong. So why do we accept these things? The reason is that we find some sort of truth in the morals and we accept them. In other cases people see bad things as good for them even if they don’t harm others, maybe just themselves. These types of “outsiders” are seen as not right and immoral, but why? How come secular society accepts this? We’ll an argument by people like author Sam Harris goes something like this: Whatever makes people happy is morally good. Now don’t trust me on that one, but it’s close enough. So what does that mean? Well it means whatever feels good to you, do it. Wait then that means if i’m a serial killer and that makes me happy it’s morally good. There might have been a “if it’s good for society to Harris argument but still. Killing isn’t all bad. I mean less people to feed. More room and resources for all. Bullshit. Either way you look at it this argument is flawed. Getting back to the main question though I must say that no one can truly know what’s good or not. I mean Harris’s argument does have some merit. It does show that one should look for what makes them happy, and as long as it doesn’t harm anyone. In the end God is the only real person to know what’s good or not. Guess we all gotta wait for an answer to this question huh?

So what’s your opinion?

What is stopping you from doing whatever you want?

In this world every human is given free will and can do whatever they like with it. That means you can kill, rape, rob, and destroy. I mean because of society only are we punished in life. We do anything that is seen as against “the law” and a price has to be paid. Why? If we have free will doesn’t that mean we can do whatever. Yes and No. The only reason I can find is the prescence of a “outside’ source (ie. God). Some may think  - ‘Well here’s another asshole trying to get me to believe in the man in the sky.’, but what should I care what you believe. What’s it gonna do for me. Nothing. I would be the same off if I chooose to not do it. Going back to the freewill thing, though. I think (and this is just my opinion) that because of a basic human fear of the unknown (in this case the mystery of death) we all don’t do bad things, because we fear consequences. Even the most ardent of Athiests can attest to this fear. I’m not saying they fear, but I think they see many people who have this fear. It’s one thing that holds people back from just going berserk and desemating the Earth. Now what exactly is there to be afriad of? Well simple put, it’s God and the devil. I mean even one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is “fear of the Lord”. So i guess it’s sorta important to believers. I mean just think all the bad things you’ve done in your life. Now think of all the good things. Which can you think more of? Well if you know what the answer is then you tell me if you’ve used your free will. That is exactly why there is evil in the world, as Plantinga’s sorta put it. So the next time you feel restained and oppressed, just think you can do whatever you want, literally. Don’t go blaming anyone else though (like God) if you see evil in the world. That’s just how someone else is using their free will.

So what’s your opinion?

Who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell?

Well many think of Heaven and Hell as places. They aren’t, technically. What they really are may be strange, but it’s gonna make sense. They are states of being. To explain and put it simply Heaven is a state of Honor in God’s presence, and Hell is the state of shame in God’s presence. What does this mean? Well it means that everyone will be in the prescence of but in a differnt way. Depending on how you acted during life. For example, if you acted like a immoral, disrespectful person then life in God’s prescence will feel shitty. If you were good (whatever that may be) then you will feel awesome in God’s prescence. Now this all depends on how you choose to use your free will. However one cannot really be sure what heaven or hell are like because not many have died and came back to tell what they saw. If they did they would only know about the state they went to. Now you may ask, where the hell does this all come from. Well the answer is Matt Miller mostly, but also the thought process of the past, as well as the modern east. In the West (Europe) the culture revolved around shame and honor, in todays world you can see the same culture in Japan. In this culture you are judged upon the honor you bring to yourself, but mostly your family, or group. With the advent of Jesus’ teachings as well as the movement toward a more individualistic society this culture essentially died in the west. What it was replaced with was a culture of self-development and individual self-importance or “being special”. This culture focuses on how the individual seems to be by oneself, and not in a group. This shift in thought may have caused a shift in perception on certain things (namely Heaven and Hell). Going back to the whole point of this. One must look at Heaven and Hell as states of being, and not places as we know them. Then they become one and just a way to describe the state your in after life. You must be asking yourself ‘Well then with all this said, Who goes where?’ The answer is up to God, and you because you have the Free Will and can choose any path tou want. That’s the beauty of life, you can do anything you want, yet nothing at all if you want.

So what’s your view? 

 

Atheist says ok to Merry Christmas!?!

Why so serious?

With all things said what does this concept really come down to? Well the point of it all is that the campaign against the use of Merry Christmas is quite ignorant. In fact many suggest that fighting to keep it is ignorant of other cultures. In real life there is diversity and that has too be met with at all times. So just simply reversing the accusation of ignorance doesn't make anyone correct. The point however of this whole thing is to show that despite all the political correctness of the culture of today the system doesn't help at all. How then can we solve this? Well as staeted before in another post, the introduction of a moent of silence could help to make kids used to being partially exposed other cultures. Another suggestion would be to set a week or day aside to celebrate a different holiday and culture. Finally one should just accept that people will say things despite it being "offensive". I mean no one is forcing anyone to say Merry Christmas at all. So say what you want, but don't make it a rule that what secular people say has to be correct because they have no cultural bias That would be B.S. becuase they do have a bias and that is secularism.
Wait a minute, doesn't the US constitution say seperation of Church and State? And becauseof this both solution 1 and 2 are not valid? Well it seems to be true, but in reality it's not. For the moment of silence points out no particular faith or non faith based belief, it just is instated to allow all to be free to express their beliefs freely fo a moment or so. Well then still the setting aside of religious observances are againt the law of the land. Again, not so for if this were fully true then how come Public schools get off for Jewish Holidays, as well as Christmas itself? I mean there is no bases for schools to get off for Christmas. No where is there a secular reason for the day of Christmas off, as well as the Jewish holiday's. It's all based upon religiousobservance, and an equal oppurtunity to have it. In fact there is a clasue of the first amendment that says religious freedom. So the use and spoken action of Mery Christmas is such a freedom, and therfore isn't against teh Constitution whatsoever. I mean its ok to say Happy hannukah and Happy Kwanza, but why not Merry Christmas? Clearly the suppressing of the use of this phrase is discriminatory and not correct in nature. So while ths connotation of the phrase is religious it's perfectly protected by the constitution to say.

What can we do about this?

A suggestion of many is to just forget about it and just conform, but truly will that casue the problem to go away? Not in theleast bit, becasue the problem is then just ignored. So what can we do to appease everyone. Well a good thing to start off with is to introduce a moment of silence into schools. Why you may ask? Simply to allow any person of any faith or non-faith to just meditate or get a few more minutes of peace and quiet before classes. It was actually a part of schools a while back but it seems to have lost it's place in schools. My dad and mom in fact remeber such things. (They were born in 1963 and 1965 respectively). Is this it? Certainly not, this is just a simple way to get children annd others to recognize and respect other faiths other then their own. Now you may argue that just saying Happy Holiday's is a way to get other sto accept culture, but infact it's just another way to secularize society and not expose childern and others to culture and religion, which seems to be a huge part of culture in some countries. (especially those of Jewish or Islamic descent). So this saying of Happy Hannuka and Merry Christmas, etc. will get kids wondering. They'll ask questions like, "Hey whats that...?" or "What's that holiday and what do they celebrate?" So this in fact is a way of creating a better more knownledgeable society and future generation. Instead we just have kids that don't know about other cultures and beliefs becasue it might offend them. I mean how can you expect a kid to make their own choice and get things done on their own if all day everyday they are being told what to do and like and say. How will they do things if they are having it all done for them?

Two Christmas's?

In my last post it sounded as if i wanted to seperate Christmas into two different holiday's. In a sesnse this is true, but truthfully it is not. What I want to see is a Christmas that is pure and true to the reason it was made. Obviously we can still give presents to one another, and celebrate with parties and other festive things. What we have to realize though is that the true meaning is not these things. A gift doesn't make Christmas what it is at all. The true way we can celebrate the season is to remember the ones we love in our lives. It also is to commemorate the Birth of Christ. What if someone is not religious? Simple then they don't have to celebrate it because of Jesus, but because of the people they love, and to many that is Jesus. In the life of the non-believer this doesn't ring true obviously and therefore they do not celebrate it in such a way. I would like to add again that the statement Merry Christmas is just a statement of comradory, and humanity among humans. It symbolizes the fate and experience we all have to go through as humans. So the next time you see someone in December don't be afriad to say Merry Christmas!