Good behaviours vs beliefs

@kevin-eleven said
@KellyJay

I think it's telling that the serious mystics among the Jews don't engage with these characters.

Perhaps we should follow that example.

Good behaviors and beliefs should center on what? Back to the Meta-narrative
reality has a history as time passes, and that history remains what it is no matter
what we think about it, how we think about it, or who thinks what about it, even
if we think it is unimportant or not. From beginning to end, if we don't grasp
reality what did occur, and why, we can lose our perspectives on what is and isn't
important.

From the most fundamental type of questions, how did we get here, is there
meaning, and from these what is important and not. If mindless processes are
the main cause then there is no meaning that transcends all of our actions, but
if there was a purpose, that purpose defines everything, including what is and is
not important.

@kellyjay said
Good behaviors and beliefs should center on what?

The answer is moral compasses, which are formed by nature and nurture.

There is the personal moral compass: this is formed by our respective characters and our experiences at the hands of everything little human interaction we are ever exposed to.

Both your moral compass and mine have the influence of Christianity fed into it, for example, and then this is processed and applied by our consciences.

There are all manner of influences: parents, siblings, relatives, neighbours, teachers and schools, workplaces, writers, thinkers, preachers, leaders, and, of course. society and its system of laws and values.

But, ultimately, we each have our moral compass - upon which our behaviours and beliefs are centred - and, equipped with that, we must govern our own actions and take responsibility for them.

@kellyjay said
From the most fundamental type of questions, how did we get here, is there
meaning, and from these what is important and not.

No one "knows" how we got here. We have our beliefs about that particular question and how to make sense of our existence.

As for the "meaning" of our lives, that is an issue for every individual to decide upon. You find meaning in the "meta-narrative" you believe in and in your religious faith. You share this meaning with billions of people. But others don't.

Each human being must navigate his or her own way through life, evaluating what is important and meaningful.

@kellyjay said
If mindless processes are
the main cause then there is no meaning that transcends all of our actions, but
if there was a purpose, that purpose defines everything, including what is and is
not important.

If the only way you can find meaning in life is to attribute the nature of the universe and human consciousness to some kind of humanlike supernatural being whose "purpose defines everything", then so be it.

But surely you are a seasoned enough student of the human condition to know full well that your paradigm about meaning and purpose is not shared by everyone around you.

@fmf said
No one "knows" how we got here. We have our beliefs about that particular question and how to make sense of our existence.

As for the "meaning" of our lives, that is an issue for every individual to decide upon. You find meaning in the "meta-narrative" you believe in and in your religious faith. You share this meaning with billions of people. But others don't.

Each human being must navigate his or her own way through life, evaluating what is important and meaningful.

You looking for certainty?

@kellyjay said
You looking for certainty?

I am open-minded about these sorts of questions but I am comfortable with the deductions I have made and the prism with which I make sense of the world.

For all intents and purposes, I am certain that death is the end.

My 'spiritual' side is more curiosity-driven than driven by a yearning for a feeling of "certainty" about fascinating but essentially unknowable things.

@kellyjay said
You looking for certainty?

I note that your response comprises merely a minimal counter-question. I hope you do not, at some later point, pretend to have not read the three relatively detailed responses to your posts that I have offered [above].

@fmf said
I am open-minded about these sorts of questions but I am comfortable with the deductions I have made and the prism with which I make sense of the world.

For all intents and purposes, I am certain that death is the end.

My 'spiritual' side is more curiosity-driven than driven by a yearning for a feeling of "certainty" about fascinating but essentially unknowable things.

You are open minded as long as no one comes to a conclusion.

@kellyjay said
You are open minded as long as no one comes to a conclusion.

My open-mindedness has no bearing on the conclusions that you come to, just as the conclusions that you come to have no bearing on my open-mindedness.

@fmf said
My open-mindedness has no bearing on the conclusions that you come to, just as the conclusions that you come to have no bearing on my open-mindedness.

So you feel you only concern yourself with the topics at hand and not those who you are talking about or with?

@kellyjay said
So you feel you only concern yourself with the topics at hand and not those who you are talking about or with?

I concern myself with the opinions of those I engage ~ and they, as you do, engage mine... though, apparently, you are not really doing so on this occasion.

@fmf said
I concern myself with the opinions of those I engage ~ and they, as you do, engage mine... though, apparently, you are not really doing so on this occasion.

Which is it?

@fmf said
Oh well. Perhaps it's a case of whoosh then.

Assuredly not.

You keep saying that MAN created GOD in his own image. That is anthropomorphism, IF that is what happened.

GOD creating MAN in HIS own image is what actually happened, and therefore, it is reverse-anthropomorphism.

No whoosh required, unless it is your own, since you apparently didn't get what I said.

@kellyjay said
Which is it?

Which is … what FMF posted in his “three paragraphs” above which you in your usual MO, seem determined to completely ignore.

@suzianne said
GOD creating MAN in HIS own image is what actually happened, and therefore, it is reverse-anthropomorphism.

And so, after all these years, you think I believe that a creator entity made human beings in its own image?