Do you need god to tell you the difference between right and wrong? If so, are you saying you would not know the difference between right and wrong if there were no god? Further, are you saying that you would have the green light to do bad if there were no god?
Originally posted by 667joe Do you need god to tell you the difference between right and wrong? If so, are you saying you would not know the difference between right and wrong if there were no god? Further, are you saying that you would have the green light to do bad if there were no god?
I think religious scriptures reflect human thinking as to what is right or wrong. They reflect the thinking of their writers and the times in which they were written. For Christians, for example, the "difference between right and wrong" shifted in their literature and the contrast is quite stark when you compare parts of the Old and New Testaments. They have to declare themselves no longer bound by older notions regarding the "difference between right and wrong".
Originally posted by 667joe Do you need god to tell you the difference between right and wrong? If so, are you saying you would not know the difference between right and wrong if there were no god? Further, are you saying that you would have the green light to do bad if there were no god?
If we were speaking just about playing chess I'd take a chess master's words and views
over my own. God isn't limited as we are, unlike us who occupy this little sliver of time
called now He sees it all and as such has a greater view of what happens why. So I can
have my own views on right and wrong and they amount to my opinion, while I do believe
God sees it all and can make a judgment call far better than I can.
Originally posted by 667joe Do you need god to tell you the difference between right and wrong? If so, are you saying you would not know the difference between right and wrong if there were no god? Further, are you saying that you would have the green light to do bad if there were no god?
If we are the lone voice on what right and wrong are, than is it might makes right no matter
what? Opinions would be swept aside by power even if we agreed the proper course is one
way, those with power could and would make it another.
Originally posted by KellyJay So I can have my own views on right and wrong and they amount to my opinion, while I do believe God sees it all and can make a judgment call far better than I can.
Either way, it's only your opinion. Your contention that your God figure "sees it all and can make a judgment call far better than [you] can" is your opinion and your "own view on right and wrong" too.
Originally posted by 667joe Do you need god to tell you the difference between right and wrong? If so, are you saying you would not know the difference between right and wrong if there were no god? Further, are you saying that you would have the green light to do bad if there were no god?
No, we don't need God in order to tell the difference. From the time we become aware of a world outside ourselves, we know what's right and what's wrong. There is no "green light" to do wrong, even if there were no God. However, some men lack the will to consistently choose right over wrong. God gives us the strength to consistently choose right over wrong, to "gird our loins", as it were, when we lack the will to do so.
Originally posted by KellyJay If we are the lone voice on what right and wrong are, than is it might makes right no matter
what? Opinions would be swept aside by power even if we agreed the proper course is one
way, those with power could and would make it another.
Might never makes right. Anyone who claims it does is confused about morality.
Originally posted by Suzianne God gives us the strength to consistently choose right over wrong, to "gird our loins", as it were, when we lack the will to do so.
Do you believe that God also gives non-believers the strength to consistently choose right over wrong, even if they don't realize or recognize it?
Originally posted by KellyJay If we were speaking just about playing chess I'd take a chess master's words and views
over my own. God isn't limited as we are, unlike us who occupy this little sliver of time
called now He sees it all and as such has a greater view of what happens why. So I can
have my own views on right and wrong and they amount to my opinion, while I do believe
God sees it all and can make a judgment call far better than I can.