Religious morality and how it is expressed

[steve_bank]

If you are religions and claim to derive a morality from scripture, how does it manifest in your daily life?

More then just say being nice to others because Jesus says so. Do you spend money on pet food but nothing on food banks or the homeless? That sort of thing.

If you claim a moral superiority over us atheists how does it manifest?

I started a secular version on philosophy.

 

[Politesse]

I don't "derive a morality from scripture" or "claim a moral superority over us atheists", but I do my best to live a moral life in accordance with the values and principles I accept. I think most people do. People who have studied philosophy may be better able to talk about and reasonably explain their moral positions, but I think everyone inherits something of a moral system from their family of orientation, and modifies it over time in response to experience and social feedback.

 

[steve_bank]

Ersatz. How do you express your morals in your life? How are those values expressed?

If yu can not answer just say
I can't answer'.

 

[Politesse]

What is it you're after? I buy both cat food and charitable donations.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I guess you're asking about the difference between public and personal morality. Yes, there is a big difference. Maybe morality is a function of secrecy and privacy. If we all wore go-pros every waking hour of the day and that real time information was accessible to anyone and everyone we'd live in a different world.

A person's "beliefs" isn't what they say but rather what they do. The problem is we don't share all that information so what is and isn't moral and how we are perceived to express it is skewed.

 

[steve_bank]

I guess you're asking about the difference between public and personal morality. Yes, there is a big difference. Maybe morality is a function of secrecy and privacy. If we all wore go-pros every waking hour of the day and that real time information was accessible to anyone and everyone we'd live in a different world.

A person's "beliefs" isn't what they say but rather what they do. The problem is we don't share all that information so what is and isn't moral and how we are perceived to express it is skewed.

To me it is a general question. Is paying for pet health care moral when peole go without?

We krrp earing from politicans and others about Christian American values and how they have been lost.

Those values appear to be mostly self indulgence and greed.

There was nothing in the gospels about Jesus making money selling CDs on getting saved.

How does te Christian values manifest for the believers in daily life? From what is Jesus in the gosples I would argue Christians would be anti capitalism as we have it.

Christianity and religion o most is an affectation something for show.

I would argue if Christians were as moral as they imply the USA would be a much different place.

As the old Burger King commercial asks about competitors, where's the beef?

 

[Politesse]

From what is Jesus in the gosples I would argue Christians would be anti capitalism as we have it.

This is true beyond any doubt. I don't know about anti-capitalism, a debate from after his time, but Jesus was firmly and unambiguously anti-wealth, and there's not a snowball's chance in hell that he would look at the grinding poverty and excessive consumption of modern America and go "well done, children". Not at all.

I can't say I quite understand what you have against pet food though. Everyone needs to eat, not just humans; pet food is usually made from meats that American consumers are too picky to eat, so it isn't causing the fresh slaughter of more animals so much as better using the remains of those already slain. I suppose you might be suggesting that we ought not keep pets at all. But cats and dogs are already a part of human communities, and I don't think you could really turn back that clock without resorting to violence against innocents. I adopted my girl Kita because she was already homeless and hungry on my back porch, I didn't breed her personally to be a pet. Her life with us is better than it would have been on the street, and she eats a lot fewer native songbirds cooped up in my apartment than she would have if she stayed out there. I don't see this as a religious issue so much as a practical one. I believe the ancient Hebrews kept dogs and not cats? But using every part of a slain animal insofar as possible is a solid kosher principle.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I guess you're asking about the difference between public and personal morality. Yes, there is a big difference. Maybe morality is a function of secrecy and privacy. If we all wore go-pros every waking hour of the day and that real time information was accessible to anyone and everyone we'd live in a different world.

A person's "beliefs" isn't what they say but rather what they do. The problem is we don't share all that information so what is and isn't moral and how we are perceived to express it is skewed.

To me it is a general question. Is paying for pet health care moral when peole go without?

We krrp earing from politicans and others about Christian American values and how they have been lost.

Those values appear to be mostly self indulgence and greed.

There was nothing in the gospels about Jesus making money selling CDs on getting saved.

How does te Christian values manifest for the believers in daily life? From what is Jesus in the gosples I would argue Christians would be anti capitalism as we have it.

Christianity and religion o most is an affectation something for show.

I would argue if Christians were as moral as they imply the USA would be a much different place.

As the old Burger King commercial asks about competitors, where's the beef?

Of course that's accurate. The christian religions are social clubs built around the fact that they like certain stories. It's not about emulating the protagonist in those stories, at least generally speaking. It's about having power and control, both personal and social. Nothing new there religiously speaking.

To Poli's response, should I stop keeping plants? That takes time and resources that could be spent otherwise. Plants are not pets in the animal sense but are as much a hobby that consumes resources as much as any other hobby. Taken to the extreme we should be destroying the planet in the name of christian brotherhood. Where would that get us?

 

[Politesse]

To Poli's response, should I stop keeping plants? That takes time and resources that could be spent otherwise. Plants are not pets in the animal sense but are as much a hobby that consumes resources as much as any other hobby. Taken to the extreme we should be destroying the planet in the name of christian brotherhood. Where would that get us?

I'd say plants earn their keep, by any measure. Little carbon-scrubbers, they are. I do think people should get off the artifical fertilizers as much as possible, and be more careful about waste from urban gardens.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

To Poli's response, should I stop keeping plants? That takes time and resources that could be spent otherwise. Plants are not pets in the animal sense but are as much a hobby that consumes resources as much as any other hobby. Taken to the extreme we should be destroying the planet in the name of christian brotherhood. Where would that get us?

I'd say plants earn their keep, by any measure. Little carbon-scrubbers, they are. I do think people should get off the artificial fertilizers as much as possible, and be more careful about waste from urban gardens.

FWIW I already practice that particular religion.